GUESS WHO
Reviewed by Harvey S. Karten
Columbia Pictures/ Regency Enterprises
Grade: B+
Directed by: Kevin Rodney Sullivan
Written by: David Ronn, Jay Scherick, Peter Tolan
Cast: Bernie Mac, Ashton Kutcher, Zoe Saldana, RonReaco
Lee, Judith Scott, Robert Curtis Brown
Screened at: Chelsea West, NYC, 3/22/05
Americans believe in monogamy, but truth to tell you don't
marry one person: you marry a family. As though being married
is not itself a piece of cake, it's helpful to get along with your in-
laws. When you become engaged to someone outside your
culture, you may be ecstatic about your love for each other, but
what might your in-laws and, in fact, your own parents think of
such an arrangement? We live in a post-1960's generation and
such liaisons may be more widely accepted than they were in
Stanley Kramer's film "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner"–about a
black-white marriage in which Katherine Houghton brings home
her fiance, Sidney Poitier, to meet her perplexed parents. By
the title you may think that "Guess Who" is a sequel, simply
standing the Kramer pic on its head by changing the genders: in
this case a black girl brings her white boyfriend home to meet
her folks. But where Kramer's take is serious, director Kevin
Rodney Sullivan's is droll–with a few sentimental touches to
place the movie firmly into the conventions of romantic comedy.
What makes "Guess Who" different from "Meet the Parents" is
the racial aspect. We meet the white guy, Simon Green (Ashton
Kutcher), just as he is quitting his Wall Street job, the cause of
his bolting made clear near the sentimental conclusion of the
story. He picks up his fiancé, Theresa Jones (Zoe Saldana) and
off they go to the spacious New Jersey home of his in-laws to
be, Percy Jones (Bernie Mac) and his wife Marilyn (Judith
Scott). Women being usually the more tolerant sex, Marilyn
gives a warm welcome to the young 'uns while Percy, who holds
a job as senior loan officer in a bank, is upset. Bernie Mac,
however, is such a vital, comic presence, that his flashing,
Roger-Dangerfield eyes are exude general hilarity, his comic
timing so adroit that he hardly has to open his mouth to make
the strong pronouncements: his eyes tell all.
Since "Guess Who" follows the conventions of romantic
comedy, the arc is predictable. We are not giving much away
when we say that Percy and Simon, after clashing more times
than anyone should expect during a long weekend visit, will get
together, while Percy, having argued with his wife Marilyn to
such an extent that the two have parted ways, will find more
than enough common ground to repeat his vows with her as
scheduled.
Bernie Mac hits his comic stride early on when he thinks that the
driver of a taxi that takes the happy couple to his home is the
intended boyfriend, while the movie hits its climactic point
midway during a family dinner when Percy goads a reluctant
Simon into telling the family some of the racist jokes that Simon
has in the past "overheard." While the one about "How do we
know that Adam and Eve were not black?" "Because you can
never take a rib from a black man" wins applause, the follow-up
falls flat and threatens to alienate Percy from his intended son-
in-law for good.
Bernie Mac is so good in a role that only he–not Chris Rock, not
Eddie Murphy–can tackle, that he makes up for the false steps
of the miscast Ashton Kutcher, who appears to think that the
role of straight-man must be played as though he were
cardboard. Kutcher is unconvincing whether he wimps out
under the pressure of a strong father-figure or tries to turn on
the juice as the aggrieved party who forcefully stands up for
himself. Zoe Saldana (Pirates of the Caribbean," "The
Terminal") is perfectly cast as the strong woman who refuses to
give up the love of either her boyfriend or her father, the one
person who has a clear sense of what makes human beings tick
and can therefore convince us as peacemaker. Of the side
roles, the standout is that of Percy's septuagenarian father,
Howard (Hal Williams), a guy who is completely bemused by the
relationship that his granddaughter has with a white guy and is
ready to kick butt to prove it.
Rated PG-13. 103 minutes © 2005 by Harvey Karten
harveycritic@cs.com
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