What Women Want

About What Women Want

What Women Want is a 2000 American film, directed by Nancy Meyers and starring Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt. The movie achieved enormous success with a domestic gross of $182,811,707 and a world-wide gross of $374,111,707, against a budget of $40 million. As of June 2008 this movie holds the distinction of being the highest-grossing film to be directed by a female.

Mel Gibson is Nick Marshall, an ad executive who grew up with his Las Vegas showgirl mother - and so has an alpha male view of women, which works well for him when it comes to getting men to buy beer or cars or getting most women (such as a coffee attendant Marisa Tomei at a local shop) to fawn over him. However, just as he thinks he's heading for a promotion, his manager Dan (Alan Alda) informs him that he needs to hire the talents of Darcy McGuire (Helen Hunt) to keep the ad company 'fresh' and get new clients. Thus, his ego is bruised and he gives the cold shoulder to Darcy in the process.

Compounding his problems, his estranged 15-year-old daughter Alex is spending two weeks with him while his ex-wife Gigi goes on her honeymoon with her new husband. Alex sees Nick as someone she's embarrassed to have as a father, and is not interested in his being 'protective' when she brings a boyfriend home.