What Men Want (2019) * *

Directed by:  Adam Shankman

Starring:  Taraji P. Henson, Tracy Morgan, Max Greenfield, Brian Bosworth, Josh Brener, Aldis Hodge, Ed Helms, Richard Roundtree

Everything that can be done with this premise has been done over the course of two movies now. 
Mel Gibson had the power to read women's minds in the forgettable 2000 comedy What Women Want, and now Taraji P. Henson can read men's minds in this sporadically funny, but mostly harmless and forgettable 2019 remake.    Let's face it:  This is a much better idea in theory than in practice. 

What Men Want features Taraji P. Henson in the Mel Gibson role, but instead of a hard-charging advertising executive, she is Ali, a hard-charging sports agent who can't land the partnership at her firm she craves.   Her boss Nick (Bosworth-yes THAT Brian Bosworth) says she doesn't know how to connect with men, but Ali figures the agency is a boys-only club she can't enter because she's a woman.  After a visit with a psychic, drinking some nasty tea, and hitting her head on a bar, she wakes up with the ability to read the thoughts of any man she comes into contact with.    She is surprised to learn that some of the men at the agency don't care for her, others keep poker night secret from her, and at least one guy at the agency is a closeted homosexual.

She now wants to use her newfound "gift" to attempt to sign the projected number one overall NBA draft pick while figuring out a way to outmaneuver his controlling father (Morgan).   She has a budding relationship with a widower named Will (Hodge) and his cute six-year-old son, but for reasons not entirely made clear she manages to have them pose as her husband and son without their knowledge.    What Men Want takes the sitcom, slapstick approach to the material, with some sentimentality thrown in.   It is all an ungainly fit, with Henson putting forth an enormous amount of energy in trying to keep up with it all.   I was hoping at some point in the movie she could take a nap, and she does pass out after some particularly rough sex with Will. 

My issue with Mel Gibson's version and this one remain the same, even though they were made nearly twenty years apart.   There is only so much that can be done with it.    The secret thoughts of the opposite sex are really just cheap, lame one-liners, and the ability to hear them is a gimmick anyway.   The real story is how Ali transforms from a manipulator who is always playing agent to someone who learns to love and understand men.    She even learns to understand the loneliness of her father (Roundtree), who raised her like he would a boy, with heavy emphasis on boxing.

What Men Want leans heavier on slapstick, with a payoff that is inevitable and predictable, which would be acceptable if I cared.    Instead, we get a remake of a movie which wasn't screaming to be remade in the first place.