Film remakes are a dime a dozen these days; one needs only visit the local multiplex to see there are stacks of them produced every year. From "Psycho" to "Manchurian Candidate" to "Dawn of the Dead," it appears that any film property is fair game too.
Perhaps then, it was only a matter of time before the powers that be in Hollywood decided to tinker with "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner."
To be fair, the resulting film "Guess Who" actually bears little real resemblance to the 1967 original. What the writers have done is flip the races of the principals, padded the film with plot devices, and changed the tone of the film from domestic drama to screwball comedy. In the end, the two movies are so disparate that it's hard to make any comparisons between them. For example, I have a hard time picturing a Go-Kart race scene featuring Spencer Tracy and Sidney Poitier.
In the new film, Ashton Kutcher plays Simon Green, an up and coming investment consultant in New York. Simon is engaged to Theresa Jones (Zoe Saldana), who is about to bring him home to meet her parents, Percy (Bernie Mac) and Marilyn (Judith Scott). Naturally, Simon is nervous at the prospect, particularly considering that he is white, and Theresa and family are black. Adding to his dismay, Simon has recently quit his job with no real prospects on the horizon. He's stuck in the middle of a delicate situation: he must try to impress Percy, while hiding his employment problem until the weekend is up.
Along the way, Simon and Percy end up in a few "Meet the Parents" type situations: the aforementioned Go-Kart scene, an uncomfortable moment involving a radio that only plays songs about interracial love, Percy's insistence on sharing a sofa sleeper with Simon to keep him away from Theresa, and so on. Many of these gags are pretty amusing, some even bordering on laugh out loud funny. Granted nothing in this film is quite as daring or entertaining as the stuff from "Meet the Parents," but for what it is, "Guess Who" does execute it's jokes reasonably well.
On the other hand, artistically the film misses a great opportunity to re-examine the issues presented in the original film. How far have we come as a society in terms of race relations? How would black parents really react to their daughter's white fiancée? Would the situation have been different with a white woman and a black man? How would the story change if the difference was not one of race but religion, or if the young couple were gay? These are just a few of the thoughts that passed through my mind as I watched Ashton and Bernie spoon each other on the Hide-A-Bed.
Would these ideas have made for as entertaining a movie as "Guess Who?" Maybe not, but then again as I recall "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" was still enjoyable, despite the heady issues it raised. Of course, that film was worthwhile in large part because of the characters. Sidney Poitier and Spencer Tracy played their roles perfectly; overall Tracy was a good man who, despite his early prejudices, truly cared for his daughter and came to accept his new son-in-law. Meanwhile, Poitier was charming and dignified, playing opposite the bigoted expectations of the Tracy character (and much of white America at that time).
Far from defying stereotypes, the current film more often than not plays off them as the punch lines for the jokes. Sometimes this works, and at others falls flat (a particularly uncomfortable scene in which Percy goads Simon into telling racist jokes comes to mind). However, overall the film isn't really trying to make any meaningful social statement. Its message is much simpler than that: come in, buy your ticket, sit down, and be entertained. Just leave your brain at the door; it'll probably get in the way.
"Guess Who"
Directed by Kevin Rodney Sullivan
Written by David Ronn, Jay Sherick, and Peter Tolan
Starring Bernie Mac, Ashton Kutcher and Zoe Saldana
Entertainment: 2 1/2 stars
Art: 1 star
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