WHAT MEN WANT – Review

Taraji P. Henson in What Men Want from Paramount Pictures and Paramount Players. © 2018 Paramount Players, A Division of Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.

Taraji P. Hensen plays an ambitious sports agent trying to make partner at an agency dominated by white men in the comedy WHAT MEN WANT, a gender-switch re-make of Mel Gibson hit WHAT WOMEN WANT. Despite the title, and the obvious answer it might spark, the focus of this film is still what women want, and specifically want Hensen’s character wants: to succeed in the workplace.

Hard-working, aggressive sports agent Ali Davis (Taraji P. Hensen) thinks she is a sure-thing to make partner at her firm at long last but when she is passed over – again – it creates a crisis for her. As the only female agent at the firm Summit Worldwide Management (SWM), she is has signed a slew of Olympic stars but has yet to sign one in pro sports. Tired of being repeatedly passed over, she is determined to sign the likely number one NBA draft pick, Jamal Barry (Shane Paul McGhie). While Ali obsesses about breaking that glass ceiling, she gets a distraction in the form of a bachelorette party for one of her trio of best friends. The party’s entertainment includes a fortune teller (Erykah Badu) and the weird woman inadvertently gives Ali a strange power – to read men’s minds.

That bit of information shouldn’t be much of a spoiler as this comedy is a gender-reversed remake, of sorts, of the Mel Gibson film WHAT WOMEN WANT. The Gibson movie was a hit but basically standard Hollywood comedy stuff, in which a clueless man magically gains the power to read women’s thoughts and finds out what they REALLY think of him.

WHAT MEN WANT skews chick flick, but one with more of a workplace focus than all about romance. While the Gibson movie was more about general male cluelessness about women and romance, the gender switch takes this comedy in a different direction. Gaining the ability to read her male co-workers thoughts allows Hensen’s character to out-maneuver them in the work place as well as giving her some personal insights. There is a romance subplot too but it is not the main point.

The sports management agency’s initials are SWM, also meaning “single white male” which describes many of Ali Davis’ co-workers, or at least the white and male part. As the name of the agency indicates, subtle does not describe this comedy by director Adam Shankman (HAIRSPRAY) and producers Will Packer and James Lopez (GIRLS TRIP) but it does offer a little feminist twist to the familiar genre outline. The comedy focuses more on the main character’s workplace, her self-absorption and difficulty reading people, more than on romance (although there is romance). On the other hand, some of the comedy is rude and crude, including a joke about a misplaced condom, and Hensen’s character hilariously acts like a stereotypical selfish man after she picks up a guy at a bar.

Still, the comic efforts of the cast, more than the script, are the major appeal of this popcorn comedy. Taraji P. Hensen, familiar to many as Cookie on “Empire,” gets a surprising amount of humor out of this familiar farce-based comedy premise. Hensen leads a good cast, with Brandon (Josh Brener) as her overworked gay assistant, Richard Roundtree as her supportive single dad, Tracy Morgan as the NBA prospect’s goofy overbearing dad/manager. Other cast members who are good in less comedic roles include Aldis Hodge as the love interest and Shane Paul McGhie as the young NBA prospect.

The big scene-stealer is Erykah Badu as the weird fortuneteller, who gets every drop of humor out of her crazy character. She generates some many laughs that the film feels like the part was expanded to make room for her, much to the audience’s delight.

Make no mistake: this is dumb comedy stuff, just like the Mel Gibson original, but sometimes that is just what audiences want. WHAT WOMEN WANT is a gal pal popcorn comedy with more laughs than you might expect from its silly Hollywood fantasy premise, largely thanks to Taraji P. Hensen and a hard-working supporting cast.

WHAT MEN WANT opens Friday, Feb. 8.

RATING: 3 1/2 out of 5 stars