What Women Want

Mel Gibson seems to be winning the battle of the sexes in this inventive romantic comedy from director Nancy Meyers. Gibson plays Nick Marshall, a chauvinistic advertising executive who accidentally suffers an electric shock and suddenly finds himself able to hear women's thoughts. His unique gift sometimes proves to be a mixed blessing, but when bitchy rival Helen Hunt beats him to a top job Gibson decides to play dirty. Gradually, his insights into how women think, and what they want, bring out his feminine side. Despite the daft premise, this is wittily written and sharply directed, with Gibson effortlessly running the gamut from sheer obnoxiousness to utter charm. Hunt is great, too, as his far-from-perfect love match. A couple of superfluous subplots slow down the action, but otherwise this is splendid entertainment in the grand tradition of those screwball comedies of the 1930s and 40s.

Lightweight romantic comedy, though its central conceit is hardly developed Ð all women apparently, will settle for even an unreconstructed Mel Gibson Ð as subplots of office intrigue and family disharmony proliferate.