What Men Want | Film Review

Hey Guys x

I was completely uninterested in seeing this film when I first heard about it. I'm not particularly opposed to all the remakes that are coming out right now, but the original version of this film, 'What Women Want' was one of the staple films of my childhood. Maybe it shouldn't have been, but I remember watching it repeatedly when I was young and it was definitely one of my favourite movies, so I kind of felt a loyalty to that version, and as such wasn't that interested in this one. Nevertheless, I have seen it, and it did surprise me.

Ali Davis (Taraji P Henson) is a sports agent who has just been passed up for a huge promotion that she believes was rightfully hers. After visiting a psychic and drowning her sorrows, Ali wakes up and discovers that she can hear men's thoughts. But when Ali starts to use her newfound abilities to advance both her career and her love life, she discovers that hearing men's thoughts might not be a good thing after all.

Despite my love for the original version, I really enjoyed this movie. I mean, I had a few problems with it, but that didn't lessen the enjoyment that I felt whilst watching it.

For a start, obviously this was a gender-flipped remake. But it was still really nice to see a woman working in the sports field, and it was even nicer to see just how far up the ladder she'd climbed, even without the big promotion.

While I didn't love a lot of the characters in the movie (they were mostly unlikeable, for the purpose of making the audience on Ali's side), my absolute favourite character was Ali's assistant Brandon, played by Josh Brener. Him as a character, and his relationship with Ali, is what set the tone of the film. Their scenes were hilarious, they had really great chemistry and without him I can't see this film being as good as it was.

Because while I did like the film, I didn't like everything about it.

For one, some of the dialogue was cheesy and eye-roll inducing. There were sentences where you can completely imagine the writers sitting in the writers room and being like 'that's funny, make her say that', and keeping these lines in the film even though they didn't quite work.

The whole scene with the psychic was cringey, when you can tell that it was meant to be really funny. I found myself just silently staring at the screen the whole time. Plus, I think the way that the main character in the original got his powers was more realistic and a lot funnier.

Speaking of things being unrealistic, there were so many parts of the movie that were unrealistic in the sense that Ali wasn't doing much to be discreet about her powers, and it doesn't make sense that more people didn't catch on.

There were also a few scenes that were way too long, for example, the poker scene. Unnecessary and way too long.

Having said all of this, the funny parts of the film are really funny. When they're not trying too hard, they really hit the mark of what they're trying to achieve.

Overall, it's a feel-good entertaining film that isn't without its problems.

6.5/10

Lou