The Facts:

Synopsis: A woman is boxed out by the male sports agents in her profession, but gains an unexpected edge over them when she develops the ability to hear men’s thoughts.

Stars: Taraji P. Henson, Josh Brener, Aldis Hodge, Tamala Jones, Tracy Morgan, Shane Paul McGhie, Erykah Badu, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Max Greenfield

Director: Adam Shankman

Rated: R

Running Length: 117 minutes

TMMM Score: (6/10)

Review: Now that Hollywood seems to be ushering in a full reboot/remake renaissance, they’ve taken it a step further and tried their hand at gender-bending these properties. We’ve already seen the disappointing results of the flips of 2016’s Ghostbusters and 2018’s Overboard but then again Ocean’s Eight last year was a cool treat in early summer. With gender swapped remakes of Splash, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and even The Rocketeer (!!) either in production or in development, it’s nice to see filmmakers thinking outside of the box and beyond gender because when it works it can be fun. So while What Men Want isn’t the most wholly original or even the most well-constructed comedy you’ll see this year, it’s still an unusually entertaining piece that finds the funny in some unique places.

Updating the 2000 rom-com What Women Want from a male-led piece about a chauvinist that sees the error of his ways when he starts to hear the thoughts of women actually makes a lot of sense. There’s ample room for comedy in making the lead a female sports agent who can hear what men are thinking and using it to her advantage as she subverts a boys club that continues to keep her from a promotion she deserves. The three credited screenwriters jettisoned the majority of the material from the original film, keeping only the basic concept of one person being privy to the inner thoughts of the opposite sex.

Hotshot agent Ali (Taraji P. Henson, Ralph Breaks the Internet) is at the top of her game in the all-male sports agency she works for. Though she has signed a stable of highly decorated athletes, she hasn’t yet broken into the big leagues and, according to her boss, that’s what’s kept her from being promoted to partner. When she’s passed over yet again for the recognition she deserves, she puts everyone on notice that she’ll be the one to sign the firm’s most desired client: the hottest basketball star (Shane Paul McGhie) who comes with a difficult-to-please father (Tracy Morgan, The Boxtrolls).  Attending a bachelorette party that same night, she gets her tarot cards read by a psychic (Erykah Badu) who recognizes that she needs some help at work. Drinking a suspicious tea prepared by the psychic before going out for a night of partying, Ali gets too much into the spirit of the dance and hits her head, only to awake with a new gift/curse of being able to hear what men are thinking. As expected, much of the private thoughts reveal men to be disgusting pigs but they also show them to be just as self-deprecating, vulnerable, and sensitive as their female counterparts. At first, Ali wants to rid herself of this newfound power but after visiting the psychic again she realizes she can parlay this gift into getting the upper hand on the men in her life that have held her back.

At nearly two hours, What Men Want wants a better editor as the film is a good 20 minutes too long. Director Adam Shankman (Rock of Ages) can’t seem to shore up the action to give the film a satisfactory rhythm so the movie becomes funny only in first and spurts. The time in between the laughs can be rough going, rarely fully redeemed by the comedy no matter how strong it may be.   It seems to me there’s large gaps in the movie from scenes that either were removed or never written because there are threads that are left dangling or huge leaps of faith audience members need to take without much explanation.

It’s lucky, then, that the film has Henson in the driver’s seat at she’s a genuinely strong comedian that balances good comic timing with believably dramatic sincerity. She’s appropriately freaked out when the voices start to come on loud and strong and manages to sell a shoddy sequence near the end where she spills some very private secrets in a very public setting. There’s a side plot featuring a romance between her and a widowed dad (Aldis Hodge, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back) that doesn’t quite work, mostly because it doesn’t generate any laughs and we are, after all, in a comedy.  I also appreciated that there’s a bit more holding Ali back than her gender or her race, the suggestion is that she doesn’t relate well to men and that seems to be confirmed by everyone in her life at one point during the film.  While the movie ultimately misses out on the opportunity to explore this opportunity for personal growth to the fullest, it’s an interesting piece to introduce, if not fully explore.

The movie has a secret weapon, though, and it’s Badu’s downright spectacular work as the kooky psychic. She’s a ninja in the art of scene stealing and don’t be surprised if you find yourself wondering where her character is when the movie starts to slow down as it approaches the 90 minute mark. Thankfully, she pops up again in the credits so make sure to stay and catch her act. As Ali’s long-suffering assistant, Josh Brener (The Internship) is fine in a stereotypical role the screenwriters try to be creative with but I wish he had better chemistry with Henson because they never seem to truly enjoy one another. Though Morgan is bewilderingly billed above the title with Henson and shares equal position on the poster, he’s barely in the movie.

What Women Want was already remade in 2011 in China but this is the first true re-imagining of the movie and, for the most part, it works. Would the film have been better if a little more attention had been paid to the script to fill in some plot holes and excised a bit more of the romance subplot? Sure. Would I have liked to see more of dependable character actress Wendi McLendon-Covey (Blended)? Of course. Does the film work in spite of all its ungainly faults as a rainy day harm-free matinee? Absolutely.