[Daryn Kagan, Cnn Anchor:] Time to talk movies now. And we're going to start with a movie that is good for anybody who was ever wishing he could read a woman's mind. Let's take a look. [Begin Video Clip, "what Women Want"]
[Helen Hunt, Actress:] Set meeting, Nike, women's division. Hi.
[Mel Gibson, Actor:] Hi. Well, I've been here five minutes. It looks like you've been here a year.
[Hunt:] Oh, yes. I'm compulsive. It's a problem. Why do I always feel like he's checking me out? I wonder what he's got up his sleeve.
[Gibson:] Great photographs.
[Hunt:] He has no clue they're all Margaret Burke-White.
[Gibson:] They're not all Margaret Burke-White are they?
[Hunt:] Yes, they are.
[Gibson:] Wow. It's a beautiful collection.
[Hunt:] Thanks. So how's it going?
[Kagan:] And a little quick scene there from the latest Mel Gibson movie; also Helen Hunt in there: "What Women Want." Peter Travers, remember him? He used to be here every Friday...
[Peter Travers, Movie Critic, "rolling Stone" Magazine:] Yes.
[Kagan:] Peter, good to see you.
[Travers:] Good to see you, Daryn.
[Kagan:] It's been a while.
[Travers:] You've got all that chad now. You know, we can move past it. Whoa.
[Kagan:] Yes, hanging chads. There you go. Let's get back to the movies. This one has intrigued me since I first saw the trailer in the movie house. This is a good one?
[Travers:] I think you're going to like this one, I really do, even though I'm here to tell you that no man will ever figure out what women want ever.
[Kagan:] And that's a good thing.
[Travers:] Yes. And Mel Gibson, even though he's given a special power in this movie because he has a little hair dryer accident that I won't go into...
[Kagan:] OK.
[Travers:] ... does get this power temporarily. And, you know, this is Mr. "Braveheart" in a movie where he plays a really chauvinistic ad exec who gets this power and gets to rise because of it. And then we get to see him try out women's products. I mean, there's Mel wearing stretch-top pantyhose, using depilatories, getting his legs waxed.
[Kagan:] Yes.
[Travers:] I mean, this is nothing we've ever seen before. He's looser than he's ever been on screen, funnier than he's ever been.
[Kagan:] And he carries it off?
[Travers:] Yes, he's really, really good. You know what happens, though? When it becomes a conventional romance, when he just falls in love with Helen Hunt and becomes a good guy again, I was less interested in that. I liked him when he was a rat.
[Kagan:] As I bad guy.
[Travers:] Yes.
[Kagan:] And you also got a little bit better idea of what we go through for you men.
[Travers:] Yes, you know, and we do not want to know, speaking for all men here. We do not want to know. The scariest scenes in this movie are when Mel is hearing what women actually do think of them. No.
[Kagan:] Pretty scary thought.
[Travers:] Yes.
[Kagan:] Let's move on to the next movie "Chocolat." It sounds tasty if nothing else. Listen to a little clip and then we'll talk about it.
[Travers:] OK. [Begin Video Clip, "chocolat"]
[Unidentified Male:] She was some kind of radical.
[Unidentified Male:] I heard she's an atheist. What's that? Don't know. Opening a chocolatery just in time for Lent.
[Unidentified Female:] Oh, yes, it does seem inappropriate. Chilly pepper and hot chocolate? It'll give you a lift. Tastes like something I had when I was a girl.
[Kagan:] "Chocolat."
[Travers:] I love the way you say that, Daryn. You know, it's very French. And you know the reason we call is chocolat and not chocolate is because it's set in France.
[Kagan:] Oh, OK.
[Travers:] Even though there are except for Juliette Binoche, everybody's either Judi Dench, who's English, or Johnny Depp, who's American all doing French accents, which is very strange. This movie is really about the power of the sensual power of chocolate, which Juliette Binoche's character sells with her daughter in this little French town to make people be less rigid in their lives, to really just open them up and not be intolerant anywhere.
[Kagan:] But is it good? Is it a good movie?
[Travers:] It's the chocolate looks good. You know, at the screening I was at, nobody gave me any so I'm bitter and resentful over that. And it has a lot of different tones in it and really wonderful performances. There's a little too much whimsy for me. The little girl, the daughter in this movie, talks to an imaginary kangaroo called Pontuf. That's going too far for me. I don't want to talk to any imaginary kangaroo.
[Kagan:] A bit too much. Peter, my sister calls me the other day from New York and she says, do you want to see because we're going to be spending Christmas together do you want to see "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"? And I said, huh? What is that?
[Travers:] You want to see that.
[Kagan:] What is it?
[Travers:] There you go, huh, what is that? People are not going to be saying that come Oscar time because this movie, which is the strangest title, directed by Ang Lee, who gave us "Sense and Sensibility," mixes the martial arts genre. It's set in the 19th century with one of the sweetest, most romantic love stories you'll ever see.
[Kagan:] Really?
[Travers:] It stars the Hong Kong action king Chow Yun-Fat and Michelle Yeoh, who was a Bond girl in "Tomorrow Never Dies." And here's something that usually has no respect and people think it's all Jackie Chan, it's all boom-boom, like we're looking at now on the screen. But the fact is, this is the most touching, most romantic movie this year. And to me, humble little me is saying this is the best picture of the year. You and your sister and everybody else's sister has got to get out to this one.
[Kagan:] Wow. If she's not watching because sometimes she does watch from work Kallen, if you're watching, don't see that without me.
[Travers:] No.
[Kagan:] If not, I'll have to call her. Peter Travers, good to have you back on our regular crew.
[Travers:] Oh, it feels good.
[Kagan:] Our regular Friday date. We'll see you again next Friday.
[Travers:] OK, thanks, Daryn.
[Kagan:] Thanks a lot. Peter Travers, "Rolling Stone" magazine.