Hey folks, Harry here with our first review from a new spy whom looks to be a new consistent agent... R Aleutian... who's first mission was to track down and report back to me on.... WHAT WOMEN WANT... Now from what I have heard this was the first screening... and from the sound of it... it is a very very fun romantic comedy with a possible deadly ending... this is where the testing process actually helps... If R. Aleutian is correct... and the ending sucks a golf ball through a garden hose... well the feedback cards will indicate that and it'll be off to the reshoot lab to figure out how to wrap it all up. Or he might not be typical... in which case... we'll be stuck with the ending when we see it. BUT THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS IN TEST SCREENINGS... You see films that change... that are not locked down... of course in this day and age of director's cuts and special editions... it seems film is not becoming an exacting and permanent artform.... Generally in the past when a filmmaker saw a flaw in his film, he'd make another film of the same type and simply improve on that film. Now... well, most directors seem to want to move from genre to genre... theme to theme... But I'm getting off track... Here's WHAT WOMEN WANT... and keep in mind... the film R Aleutian has seen... will not be the film you see... I bet...
What Women Want
Well after watching what the studio called a work in progress, I’m inclined to believe that the film is 99% finished. I don’t think much will be changed in this Mel Gibson vehicle.
Now since no one on this site has ever read a review of mine, here is your caveat; I will reveal aspects of the movie that will “spoil” parts of it. However, I will never reveal a crux or climax or tell you if Darth is really Luke’s father. If you truly want to go into a movie totally tabula-rassa I don’t recommend watching any trailers or reading any reviews because they all will spoil something, even teasers.
It really is a Mel Gibson vehicle. Every woman who has ever drooled over this Mel’s mug will get exactly what they want in this romantic comedy. This movie starts off very well with a montage flashback of the childhood of Gibson’s character Nick Marshall. Then we jump forward to what is present day Chicago, Nick is fully-grown, divorced and has very little contact with his 15 year old daughter. To be blunt, Nick is a jerk. We all have known people just like him. However, Mel plays Nick as a Jerk with such charisma it’s hard to hate him too much. Helen Hunt plays Darcy Maguire a recent divorcee. After seeing her in As Good As It Gets, it’s easy to see that she has a very large and dynamic range. It’s unfortunate that her character Darcy Maguire is about as exciting as hard-boiled eggs, and her character is essentially flat throughout the entire film. Darcy has a reputation for being a hard-nosed bitch, well Darcy never lives up to that, she is pleasant and friendly and the least neurotic woman you’ll ever meet, which also makes her the dullest character you meet in this film. I kept hoping for something to happen with her but it never does.
Nick is accidentally given the ability to hear the thoughts of every woman standing within about 20 feet. This newfound ability causes Nick to be overcome with anxiety, which ends up bringing Nick to the brink of his sanity. He visits a psychiatrist played in a cameo by Bette Midler. I have never been a fan of Bette and she is just in the one scene, but she steals it. Her performance as Dr. Perkins is her best performance in this last 10 years. The other scene sealer I have also never been a big fan of. Alan Alda plays Nick’s boss Dan Wanamaker, and he’s great. It’s the best he’s been since his role in much overlooked David O. Russell masterpiece Flirting With Disaster.
It’s too bad that this longish movie starts off really well and then ends on such an unbelievable bad note. As a matter of fact as I go back through the movie and think about all the different aspects it’s really a shame the film has such a bad ending. It leaves you with the feeling that you got suckered in to eating something out of the bottom of my cat’s litter box. YUCK!
How bad is this ending? Well I’d put it right up there with the Helicopter in the Volcano. In case you aren’t familiar with the Helicopter in the Volcano, that is standard industry speak for an unbelievably bad ending, and ending that makes you groan, and ending that makes you go “Dear God, someone screwed this shit up big time.” The “Helicopter in the Volcano” refers to the original ending of the movie Sliver, in which both Baldwin and Stone end up in a helicopter crashing into an active Hawaiian volcano. Test audiences hated it. If this movie is truly not finished maybe there is still hope. The way the ending currently stands, Nick gives about a ten-minute apology/speech to Darcy. Even if it isn’t ten minutes, it sure feels like it. The woman next to me, who had been laughing through the whole movie, fell asleep during Nick’s long-winded closing monologue. If this movie had a great ending it could become a Romantic-Comedy classic. As it stands now, it will probably be something that you would be glad you waited to rent. Grade C+
R. Aleutian
