What the hell do women want? Judging from the mostly female audience I saw the film with, just having Mel Gibson would be a good start. Other than that it's a mystery to me.

Take the following points. Mel plays Nick Marshall who begins the film as a jerk, a shallow womaniser - and it seemed that the women in the audience, and in the film, wouldn't have turned him down too readily as is.

Then he is somehow thunderstruck and can magically hear what women are thinking. This gives him the information to take further advantage of the women around him, in particular his boss Darcy (Helen Hunt), - and still there was hardly a dry seat in the house.

But Nick later becomes softened by his intimate knowledge of what the women he interacts with are thinking and becomes a bit of a snag. The women still seemed to love him.

But do they desire him any more when he's considerate, compared to when he was a cad? I'm not sure, but they sure don't love him any less.

One thing is certain though, the women did think it was funny when Mel was ripping hair off his legs and falling out of pantyhose. That indicates to male me a fair bit of resentment deep in the psyche there, and not a small amount of wry self humour at what many modern urban women are required to do to themselves to make the grade.

But then again what would I know. With all of this, What Women Want is a very entertaining comedy romance with a deft production touch. This is a film packed with detail and asides.

The sets are superb and Mel only sometimes is a little overdone. Marisa Tomei as Lola the budding actress is terrific and I wonder if another Oscar nomination might be on offer to add to her Academy Award win in 1993 in My Cousin Vinny. Helen Hunt is also very solid as Darcy.

Nick's response to a successful love making session with Lola was a hoot. And I just loved Nick absent mindedly opening the fridge looking for his girl - a lot of kilos are found that way, but not lovers.

A pleasing old time music score, complete with a cute Fred Astaire dance routine from Mel Gibson added to the pleasure. I bet that a lot of takes and quite possibly a Mel Gibson dancing look alike to achieve

4 Get Out Of The Fridge Flys.