What Men Want (2019) / What Women Want (2000)

What Men Want (2019) is a mediocre take on the 2000s rom-com What Women Want, which stars Mel Gibson as a cocky and misogynistic executive who develops the ability to hear women's interior thoughts. With his gift he materializes into a better man, and the movie ends with Gibson's character repairing his relationships with the women around him. What Men Want tells this same story, only through the eyes of Ali Davis, a female sports agent at a male-dominated firm. Ali also develops the ability to hear men's thoughts, and thereafter she gets an edge on her male colleagues. This is a classic gender-swap, and while neither film is particularly life changing, What Men Want fails to live up to its predecessor. It doesn't allow its protagonist to fully expand her wings as the token female who has boatloads of ambition. Instead, the film relies on mediocre one-liners to compensate for its lack of gender commentary, which could have been an asset. Mel Gibson's original is no stunner either, but it is more representative of its era, whereas What Men Want throws viewers back to a time before contemporary feminism.