GUESS WHO (2005) 2 1/2 stars out of 4. Starring Bernie Mac, Ashton Kutcher, Zoe
Saldaņa, Judith Scott, Hal Williams, Kellee Stewart, Robert Curtis Brown and
RonReaco Lee. Story by David Ronn & Jay Scherick. Screenplay by David Ronn & Jay
Scherick and PeerTolan. Directed by Kevin Rodney Sullivan. Rated PG-13. Running
time: 97 mins.
Nearly 40 years ago, producer-director Stanley Kramer filmed, what was then, a
landmark movie about race relations and interracial marriage. He called it Guess
Who's Coming to Dinner.
To make his film palatable, he stacked the deck with his casting: Spencer Tracy and
Katharine Hepburn as the liberal, uber-understanding parents and the biggest black
star of the era, Sidney Poitier, as the suitor seeking their daughter's hand.
Times have passed the film by. Today it seems a fluff piece, overrun with
earnestness and liberal platitudes.
And that is what makes Guess Who, for all its shortcomings, somewhat refreshing.
Taking the Poitier role is Ashton Kutcher as Simon, brought home by his girlfriend,
Theresa (Zoe Saldaņa), to meet her parents, Percy and Marilyn Jones (Bernie Mac
and Judith Scott), and to surprise them with the announcement of their
engagement.
Guess Who owes more to Meet the Parents than it does Guess Who's Coming to
Dinner.
The role-reversal idea - white male meets family of black girlfriend - soon runs its
course, leaving us with overprotective dad doing his upmost to dig up dirt on a
young man whom he considers not good enough for his little girl.
The film works best during the various exchanges between Percy and Simon. The
contrast of Mac's verbal humor is complemented by Kutcher's physical comedy.
The best sequence occurs around the dinner table where Percy goads Simon into
telling some racial jokes. It highlights the actors' contrasting styles - Mac's
intimidating Percy, all cool and collected, full of himself for putting Simon on the
spot; Kutcher's Simon, all squirming, embarrassed and stuttering as he desperately
seeks an escape hatch.
The feature cannot sustain that level of humor as it falls back on tried-and-true
formulaic situations revolving around secrets, misunderstandings and
miscommunications.
Perhaps it is telling that Guess Who does not need to overly emphasize the race
card from beginning to end. The idea of mixed marriage - once considered such a
taboo that states had laws on the books forbidding it - no longer carries a stigma
in our continually growing multicultural and multiethnic society.
Consider Guess Who a tip of the hat, a cinematic thank you, to its predecessor,
which then flies from its contemporary nest and follows its own path.
Bob Bloom is the film critic at the Journal and Courier in Lafayette, Ind. He can be
reached by e-mail at bbloom@journalandcourier.com or at bob@bloomink.com.
Bloom's reviews also can be found at the Journal and Courier Web site:
www.jconline.com
Other reviews by Bloom can be found at the Rottentomatoes Web site:
www.rottentomatoes.com or at the Internet Movie Database Web site:
www.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Bob+Bloom
========== X-RAMR-ID: 39618 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 1372638 X-RT-TitleID: 10003691 X-RT-SourceID: 872 X-RT-AuthorID: 1363 X-RT-RatingText: 2.5/4
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