Movie Reviews for Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

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Movie Reviews of Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

Movie Review: Brilliant and ageless!
Summary: 4 Stars

I watched years ago when it first came out and keep on watching it each time I see it on TV. Now I own the video. A pure classic, with brilliant actors, some that we will miss forever. Deep and wonderful movie. Sidney Poitier is a class act! A four-star movie.

Movie Review: Thematic still applicable today; great movie
Summary: 5 Stars

"Guess Who's Coming To Dinner" is nothing short of fantastic. It is funny, smart, brilliant, thoughtful, and altogether great. The performances by Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier and Katherine Hepburn were phenomenal. I especially liked the performances by Hepburn and Tracy as their characters were confronted by their own unconscious racism and discrimination when they though they were extremely liberal.

This couple raised a daughter, Joanna, to be extremely liberal and to believe in the equality of the races. But, it is still a shock to them when their daughter brings home a black man, Dr. Prentiss, as the man she wants to marry. This family must then confront the schemes and ideas they had of themselves and of their views. The couple, played by Sidney Poitier and Katherine Houghton, must also face the criticism of his parent, who is also against this biracial engagement, and also the housekeeper, a black woman, who also is against them. The movie is brilliant in that it challenges not only the characters, but ourselves, about our so-called liberalism, and it does it in a very funny way. In retrospect, I can only imagine what this movie meant for its time; but, let us not forget what it still does and how the thematic of this film is still applicable to this day.

Movie Review: A Dated Film But Still Worth Watching
Summary: 5 Stars

In this 1967 film directed by Stanley Kramer at one point Spencer Tracy (Matthew Drayton) asks Sidney Poitier (John Prentice, M.D.) what will become of their children if he marries their daughter Katharine Drayton (Joanna). He responds that Joanna believes they will become president but he would settle for secretary of state. Her prophecy has already come true in part since the United States has now had two secretarys of state who are African American and a black man now all but has the Democratic nomination for president sewn up. The film is dated and wouldn't make much sense if set in the present. In 1967, however, a movie about an interracial marriage was certainly one that raised eyebrows.

The rather thin plot is saved by the acting of three Academy Award winners, Tracey, Poitier and Hepburn-- she received a best actress award for her performance here-- all of whom give brilliant performances. Although I saw the film in 1967 I still remembered after all these years Tracy's speech near the end of the movie when he informs Poitier that, yes, he does remember what it was like to be madly in love at a young age. Of course the speech is even more poignant in retrospect since this was the last film Hepburn and Tracy ever made together for he died a few days after the film was completed. So when Hepburn's eyes teared up during his comments, we suspect that she wasn't acting at all.

It was not unusual in the 1960's-- or even today for that matter-- for liberals not to always practice what they preached. Tracy plays a newspaper editor in San Francisco known and respected for his liberal views about race. It's the old "not my daughter" or "not in my back yard" syndrome.

Occasionally the film relies on stereotypes-- Tillie, the cook and housekeeper-- for instance; and while it is not Mr. Kramer's best movie, it is certainly worth seeing again. I'd give it an A minus.

Movie Review: Pretty Good
Summary: 4 Stars

Well, I finally sat down and watched this movie. For it's time, I'm sure this was really pushing the envelope. I think it's kind of funny that an interracial couple meet in Hawaii and the white woman believes their children will grow up to be President. (Obama's parent's maybe?) Anyway, the performances were good...except for Katherine Houghton (Hepburn's niece.) I thought that she was too naive by half and listening to her made me cringe.. She was supposed to be 23 but she really acts 16. It didn't come across as mature love at all. Plus, I'd like it if Poitier wasn't a doctor. Why couldn't he have been the mailman or the manual laborer? There we would really be turning up the heat. The timeline seemed contrieved. There really wasn't a reason the couldn't wait 6 months. Truly, for the subject matter, the movie played it safe...and to that end I was a little disappointed, but this is still a movie worth seeing.