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A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Friday 8 February 2019

‘What Men Want’ is to avoid this blunder of a film

By MARK KENNEDY bluntness. If you expected
Associated Press director Adam Shankman
Not to kick off this review and writers Tina Gordon,
with a spoiler alert, but after Peter Huyck and Alex
seeing “What Men Want” Gregory to find rich mate-
the answer to what men rial to discuss male privilege
want is probably the same in these #MeToo days, think
as what women want: Not again.
to be ripped off by yet an- Men actually come off not
other dubious rom-com like so bad here. The women,
this. though, end up worse:
Taraji P. Henson tries a little There’s a scene with all of
too hard in a predictable, Ali’s best friends wrestling
gender-switching remake during a horrific, weave-
of the Nancy Meyers-led yanking cat fight at a
2000 romantic comedy church that’s the nadir of
“What Women Want.” This filmmaking in 2019.
time, a woman unlocks Henson does as best she
the power to read men’s can with this material, at-
minds. The premise has tempting Lucille Ball-level
potential but “What Men physical comedy. But she’s
Want “ is not funny enough, laboring and often over-
it’s poorly edited and blunt shadowed by the one un-
when it could have been This image released by Paramount Pictures shows Taraji P. Henson in a scene from “What Men predictable spark in the
sharp. Want.” film — provided by Erykah
Henson plays Ali, a hard- Associated Press Badu. The singer-songwrit-
elbowing, high-powered this film, accentuated by a don’t connect well with flabby and pointless scene er is in rare form here as
sports agent who is bitter dusty soundtrack that fea- men,” she is told by the at a club. an off-kilter fortune teller,
and brash — “OK, Bridezilla, tures hits by TLC, Bell Biv De- boss. To make partner, Ali And what are men secretly shooting electricity in ev-
take a Xanax,” she tells one Voe, 2 Live Crew, En Vogue vows to land the biggest thinking about? According ery scene, while small roles
of her three best friends. To and Salt-N-Pepa. sports target of the season: to this film, it is fears of be- by Tracy Morgan and Pete
a co-worker, she says: “I’m Ali is repeatedly passed The No. 1 NBA draft pick. ing fat, feeling lame, worry Davidson are oddly flat. (If
going to need you to calm up for promotion at her Along the way, she some- about bodily functions, try- you’re still bored, there’s
down, baby man-child.” smarmy, all-male firm, how bangs her head and ing not to completely geek always playing Cameo Bin-
There’s a weird ‘90s feel to which seems to leak tes- then can hear the inner out about little things, a go: Look for appearances
the look and dialogue of tosterone in buckets. “You thoughts of any man near- near-universal adoration of by sports figures Mark Cu-
by. That happens about 30 arena skyboxes, mundane ban, Shaquille O’Neal, Lisa
minutes in, which is an eter- stuff like lost keys, and the Leslie, Grant Hill and Karl-
nity of set-up, including a occasional horrific X-rated Anthony Towns.) q

‘The Shell Seekers’ author Rosamunde

Pilcher dies at 94

By JILL LAWLESS
Associated Press
LONDON (AP) — British nov-
elist Rosamunde Pilcher,
whose family saga “The
Shell Seekers” sold millions
of copies around the world,
has died, her agent said
Thursday. She was 94.
Pilcher’s literary agency,
Felicity Bryan Associates,
said she died overnight at
a hospital in Dundee, Scot-
land after a short illness. Her
son Robin Pilcher told the
Guardian newspaper his
mother suffered a stroke In this Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2005 file photo, best- selling novel writer
Sunday following a bout of Rosamunde Pilcher poses during a photo shooting in Munich,
bronchitis. Germany.
Raised along England’s Associated Press
wild southwest coast in the Mills & Boon imprint un- national best-seller in 1988,
the county of Cornwall — der the name Jane Fraser. when she was 63, with
the setting for many of her The first novel published “The Shell Seekers,” which
books — Pilcher began her under her own name, “A told the story of a bohe-
literary career in the 1940s, Secret to Tell,” came out in mian family across three
writing romance novels for 1955. She scored an inter- generations.q