Communication Movie

Communication Movie

What Women Want, a movie released in 2000 by Paramount stars Mel Gibson as Nick Marshal and Helen Hunt as Darcy McGuire. Nick works as an advertising executive at the advertising agency Sloane-Curtis. He is an "alpha male" which causes men to follow him and women to want him. In the opening lines of the movie, Nick is described as "a man's man" (What Women Want (2000), time stamp 01:02). After getting passed up for a promotion to become the creative director, Nick becomes upset. Darcy, described as "a real man-eater" (What Women Want (2000), time stamp 11:51) is brought in from outside the company to be the creative director for the firm for many reasons, but mainly because she is a woman. One night, a strange accident occurs in which Nick is given the ability to hear the thoughts of females. Nick is first upset and troubled by this ability, then uses it to his advantage, and finally, starts to feel guilty about using this ability to his own advantage. In the end, he loses the ability to hear the thoughts of the women around him. The overall theme of the movie could be summed up as a true battle of the sexes. In the context of this film, there are several types of interpersonal communications portrayed, including clichés, paraphrasing, and the ethics of communications. Nick went to the office the first time after the accident, a woman looked at him while she was eating a rice cake and thinks "Oh, yeah, like you've got the perfect body?" (What Women Want (2000), time stamp 33:16). While Nick didn't appear to have any reaction to the comment, later in the movie, he started to eat rice cakes. This is because Nick had started to think as well as act like a woman. Stereotypically, in American culture, women worry about their weight, especially when someone else makes a comment on their figure. Early in the movie, Nick, in the midst of a mental breakdown after hearing all the thoughts of the women around him, visits Dr. JM Perkins, played by Bette Midler, a therapist who he had used in the past. He was able to convince her that he can hear the thoughts of the women around him, after which she tells him "If Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus, and you can speak Venusian, the world is yours to conquer." (What Women Want (2000), time stamp 49:43 – 49:47). When trying to compare the differences between men and women, the line that "Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus" has become such a cliché that it has basically lost all meaning, and has become a throw-away line.

The use of paraphrasing is helpful in restating what someone has told you. Morgan Farwell, played by Mark Feuerstein, who is both a friend and co-worker of Nick, seemed to paraphrase Nick several times in the movie. Early in the movie, Nick tells Morgan that a co-worker thinks that he (Morgan) is over paid and gay. Later in the movie, we see Morgan asking this co-worker if she said that he was overpaid. She laughed and said no. Then he asked if she said he was gay. She looks shocked, and swore that she never said that. (time stamp 51:30 – 51:45) Another humorous example of Morgan paraphrasing Nick was early in the movie when Nick first tells him of his ability to hear the thoughts of women. To quote from What Women Want (2000) (time stamp 36:29 – 36:41):

Nick: "I hear what they're all thinking. It's driving me crazy. Even French poodles, l can hear them."

Morgan: "So we're on the same page, I need you to know you sound insane. You freaked out over losing the job, which I understand. But if you tell anybody you can hear the thoughts of a French poodle…".

In addition to Morgan Farwall, there is a lot of paraphrasing found in this movie. Since Nick can hear the thoughts of the women around them, he would paraphrase their thoughts out loud. One example of this is found in the brainstorming session that Darcy held shortly after starting her new job, seen