A big leap for Mel Gibson - DIRECT LINE by Boy Abunda

Men are from Mars and women are from Venus, but there’s an inter-planetary jump! In this case, the leap was done by blue-eyed Mel Gibson.

In his latest movie, What Women Want (now showing nationwide), Mel changes his testosterone driven image to a romantic comedy lead, his first in his illustrious 23-year career. Mel plays Nick Marshall, a charming, irrepressible hot-shot advertising executive who discovers he could hear the innermost thoughts of women. Mel teams up with a talented cast headed by Academy Award winners Helen Hunt and Marissa Tomei, Lauren Holly, Mark Feuerstein and Alan Alda. The film is written by Josh Goldsmith and Cathy Yuspa and produced by Matt Williams, Susan Cartsonis, Gina Matthews and Bruce Davey.

Mel admitted that he used to be stereotyped as a wise-cracking, pistol-packing macho man. But a lot of people don’t know that Mel is a celebrated film figure with two Oscars credited to his name (he won two Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director for the movie Braveheart). He also received the Australian Film Institute Best Actor Award twice (the first for his role in Tim as a handicapped young man and the second one for Gallipoli, directed by the brilliant Peter Weir).

But the swashbuckling hero image still stuck with Mel. After all, most of his movies belong to the action and adventure genre. "There is that perception," admits Gibson in an interview with Jess Cagle of Time magazine. "The ‘Payback’ guy who goes around shooting people indiscriminately." Because of this, Mel admits that before What Women Want, offers for him to do romantic comedy were nil. "They haven’t naturally come my way," he says.

But he faces the challenge of changing his action hero image to romantic lead head on and based from the critics’ nods, he has passed the test with flying colors. His director in the movie, Nancy Meyers explains, "Mel pokes fun at his manly image." He’s an incredibly confident and relaxed actor, open to suggestions and direction, and the hardest working actor I’ve ever seen. Mel is full of surprises."

Co-star Helen Hunt says, "All you have to be is smart and willing in a romantic comedy, and Mel so completely embodies these qualities. He is incredibly sharp, has a great sense of humor and is willing to take risks. You have to be ready to look silly, to go almost too far but you also need the brains to keep it grounded in reality so that people care while they’re laughing. Mel was great at all those things."

Joel Siegel of Good Morning America says that Mel "is a terrific actor, always has been. . . He also, unlike many stars, has awfully good taste when it comes to picking projects. . . it’s fun to watch Mel Gibson."

"Mel is swell, channeling the easy charm of a Cary Grant as he gamely waxes his legs and struggles with pantyhose in an effort to get a fix on the female mystique," writes Michael Rechtshaffen of The Reporter.com. "It is thanks mainly to that charismatic performance (that will). . . prove to be what audiences want."

And in response to what its listeners want, Magic 89.9 DWTM recently premiered What Women Want at the Glorietta in Ayala Center and at SM Megamall. Seen at the premiere were Bernadette Allyson, Dominic Ochoa, Jericho Rosales, JR Trinidad, JC Gonzales, Walden Belen, Raymund Isaac, Philip and Tricia Cu-Unjieng, Ven Thomas Kuan, Jose and Joy Pimentel, Rudy Tee, Rudy Ong, Dominic Zapata, Kit Villanueva-Langit and many more. On hand to greet the VIP’s were Pioneer Films’ Wilson and Karla Yuloque and DWTM bigwig Bernie Buenaseda with his cool jocks Tina Ryan, DJ Benii, Max Speed and Sgt. Pepper.

What Women Want is extremely funny. The film goes down into your system as easily as a glass of the finest red wine there is. The only complaint possible is that it is such a heart-warming story that you don’t want it to end. But end it does with a finale that is as refreshing as the rest of the picture. A movie that is easy to fall in love with; an early Valentine treat indeed. Go watch it!