Guess Who?

Back in 2004, I used to write movie reviews for the USM student newspaper, the "Student Printz". Because I occasionally feel lazy, and it seems a shame that all of five people ever read these, I've decided to repost them here, in the original versions that I emailed to my editor, Noel, all those years ago.

Sure, Ashton Kutcher may not be known for high quality or “deep” films (e.g. “Just Married”), but he has surprised moviegoers with some reasonable acting chops (e.g. “The Butterfly Effect”) or at least with entertaining films (e.g. “Dude, Where’s My Car?”). His latest film, “Guess Who” is officially the bottom of the barrel for this star. Unfunny, and rife with the exact kind of stuff that makes most people uncomfortable, “Guess Who” is only slightly worse from last week’s other premier, “Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous”.

“Guess Who” details the story of Simon Green (Kutcher), an investment banker who is traveling with his girlfriend, Theresa (Zoe Saldana) to meet her parents and announce their engagement. Unfortunately, Theresa’s father, Percy Jones (Bernie Mac) is reasonably upset that his oldest daughter has selected a “white boy” to be her mate. While Simon fights to please Theresa’s family, Percy is aimed at destroying Simon’s reputation and saving his daughter from making a mistake. By the end of the movie, we can be sure that Simon and Percy will get along, and Simon’s relationship to Theresa and her family will be cemented so that everyone can live happily every after.

“Guess Who” is a pseudo-remake of the 1967 classic “Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner”, starring Sidney Poitier and Katharine Houghton. In the original, the only difference is that it’s a white girl bringing her black boyfriend home to meet her parents. I’ve never seen the original, but something tells me that a movie with that kind of premise debuting in the heart of civil rights movement had to have been well done, not to mention the presence of Sidney Poitier and Spencer Tracy in leading roles. “Guess Who” makes no effort to bring itself to any level of anything worthwhile, and instead of showing some fusion of the two very different cultures, all it does is get lost in a sea of stereotypes and non-progressive attitudes.

Especially given that “Guess Who” is classified as a ‘comedy’ one would at least suspect the film to be funny, but it achieves little more than sporadic and isolated humor. Combine that with the stale racial commentary, and the movie achieves little more than a predictable melodrama. Most of the character relationships are poorly portrayed, and despite Simon being in a household of a different race, he acts like an idiot, being cornered into moments of racial tension and then doing the exact wrong thing. Even Bernie Mac, usually the comic relief in movies needing a little humor can’t carry this picture, especially when they give his character racial blinders for the first three quarters of the picture.

I had hoped that by now that filmmakers would make some effort to actually doing something with their art form, be it pursuing new relationships between radically different strata of people or entertaining the audience. But when a movie achieves neither of these and merely seeks to enforce the differences between people, it’s time to go a new direction. “Guess Who” could have been something interesting if somebody had sat down and picked a premise to focus on, instead of just spinning gears with a boring, predictable plot based around two racially terse people.