Situations like this are why I’m not as staunchly anti-remake as most
others. What Women Want is an awful movie, the kind of attempt at gender
analysis that does everyone a disservice and finds that lovely middle ground
between hating men and hating women in equal measure. It’s really sad to think
that the idea of casting Mel Gibson as the lead in a romantic comedy isn’t even
in the top 10 worst decisions that went into making that pile of utter garbage.
But at the same time, the concept at its heart about being
able to read the minds of the opposite sex is something that has potential for
something that isn’t painful to sit through. So naturally, when this remake was
announced, I admit to being a bit sceptical at first… but then I watched the
original in full and realised that there’s nowhere to go but up with this
story. And thankfully, this film actually does that.
