Guess Who
|
List Price: Our Price: $4.21 You Save: $10.78 (72%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.12 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of Guess Who
Movie Review: Guess Who
Summary: 5 Stars
My whole family loves this movie. saw it on TV and had to get it. Great comedy.Movie Review: The Kobayashi Report
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a really nice movie. But for some reason I don't have it anymore.Movie Review: IT'S STUPID
Summary: 5 Stars
THIS IS A STUPID MOVIEMovie Review: I like it a little more than I should
Summary: 4 Stars
Bernie is funny as hell--I can watch him all day. Ashton is sweet, and bumbling. Zoe is cute. Ashton and Zoe make a beautiful couple. The racist joke-scene is excellent. The metrosexual stuff is clever, and upon second viewing very funny.
The problems (and there are problems) with this movie have been touched on somewhat by the other reviewers, but I shall try to lay them to rest here once and for all by nailing them on the head.
First, the film takes the wrong approach to the race issue by modeling "MEET THE PARENTS" rather than "GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER." This film should have been less misleadingly named "MEET THE BLACK PARENTS." The chosen approach, as it is, makes parental approval of "the boy" the focus of the film, rather than the larger issue of societal approval of "the interracial union." There is a big difference between our cheering for Bernie to accept this sweet, noble kid (and how could he not?) and our applauding of societal change.
Second, the film is blatantly dishonest in a manner typical of sitcoms. As we all know, in order to garner laughs week after week, the sitcom offers a watered-down, "safe", toothless reflection of contemporary truth. Everybody seems to get along. The problems are always superficial and the main characters can always point to someone off-set as "the cause of the world's ills." There are too few exceptions to this rule--"All in the Family," "The Jeffersons," "Good Times"--and even they become watered down after the first few seasons and start feeling "safe."
And there is the key to this movie's dishonesty. We feel safe watching it. Why is that? Why do we Americans (with our history) feel safe watching a movie about race? We do NOT feel safe watching the original "GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER," not at all, despite the genuine humor in it. We feel safe with this one because we know right up front that the premise is not . . . honest. It's funny, true, silly as heck, true, but not honest: a successful black man is upset because his daughter has brought home a fiance who is handsome, well-mannered, successful and white. I'm sorry. I must have missed something here. Where is the big problem with THAT?
See, for white people this is an issue, but for blacks it is a mere shrug and then dismissal. The boy is white. So what. Most of us have some white in us from way back, if you know what I mean. Look at how fair skinned some of us are. Look at how fair skinned MOST of us are compared to our brethren straight from Africa. Oh, every now and then there'll be a snide remark about the boy. Some jealousy. Maybe even something a bit stronger. But for the most part, THAT relationship, as far as African American kin are concerned, will go unnoticed in the course of things.
This is not to say that African Americans are not racist. In many ways African Americans are just as racist as white Americans. But it is only in the world of TV and movies do black people show THIS PARTICULAR kind of racist sentiment to such a degree that it is worth writing a screenplay about. Our history tells us that American racism prevented blacks who could afford to from living in neighborhoods with whites of similar earning power. Our history tells us that American racism prevented blacks from working at jobs they were qualified to do simply because they were not white. Our history tells us that American racism prevented blacks from attending colleges that they had been accepted into simply because they were not white. Finally, our history tells us that American racism prevented blacks from marrying people that they were in love with if those people had white skin. See where I'm going with this?
The point is that African Americans, believe it or not, have been fighting since 1865 and then 1968 to live where they could afford to live, to work at jobs they were qualified to hold, to attend colleges that they had been accepted into, and to wed, white or black, those that they had fallen in love with.
Do you see the dishonesty now? Making a movie about a successful black man who does not want his daughter to marry the good, clean, honest man she loves, black or white, is sort of like making a movie about a well educated black man who does not want his bright, gifted child to attend Harvard or Yale or any other top school the child has been accepted into. "What? How dare you turn down your Spellman scholarship for Harvard! I am so upset with you!" Well, I'm sure it does happen from time to time, but not often enough to make a fuss (or a big budget movie) about.
Movie Review: A remake/reversal that finds its own ground to stand on
Summary: 4 Stars
Granted, it would be easy to dismiss "Guess Who" as a tacky flip of "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?" But then no one needs to tell Bernie Mac that he is no Spencer Tracy anymore than the difference had to be brought to Steve Martin's attention when he remade "Father of the Bride." Since he quits his job two minutes into the film Ashton Kutcher's character is not going to be mistaken for the one played by Sidney Poitier, but then the race of Kutcher's character is not held against him. Judith Scott is not trying to compare to Katharine Hepburn and definitely makes her own impression, but the most fortunate cast member has to be Zoë Saldaña who was never going to be hurt by comparisons to Katharine Houghton. More importantly, her character makes the best impression of the bunch, and while this 2005 comedy is about an African-American father trying to deal with the fact his daughter wants to marry a "white boy," do not forget that the viewing audience also has to approve of the couple as well. Fortunately, Theresa Jones is as much of a catch as her mother, Marilyn, and that at least gives Simon Green and Percy Jones something to agree about--eventually.
Director Kevin Rodney Sullivan ("How Stella Got Her Groove Back ") comments that while race is the hook of "Guess Who," that love is the melody. He is right, and that is what saves this film from turning into a regrettable remake. The trailer emphasizes the go-cart race between Percy and Simon, but while that seen provides laughs it is relatively unimportant to the central dynamic of the film (just as the cross-dressing scene is unnecessary to add to the inherent tension of the situation). Yes, Percy is put off that Theresa did not say she was bringing home a white boy, but Percy clearly is not going to be happy with anybody who wants to sleep under his roof and try to sneak around and do who knows exactly what in the middle of the night. Plus Percy knows that Simon is hiding some things and lying is not a question of race.
The screenplay by David Ronn & Jay Scherick and Peter Tolan has a couple of things going for it that allows "Guess Who" to move beyond its 1967 ancestor. First, we are given scenes establishing Simon and Theresa as a couple in love before they show up on daddy's doorstep. Simon also gets to articulate exactly why he would love someone with whom he clearly has nothing in common. Consequently, we totally buy the relationship, which has been going on for months and is not something that sprung up during a short vacation. Second, the reason Theresa has dragged Simon home is because her parents are celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary with a renewal of their vows. That means Percy has other headaches besides Theresa's boyfriend, and one of the best scenes comes in the film when the boys have each stepped over the line and Marilyn goes to her sister's house, dragging Theresa along, for lots of drinks with her wonderful support group.
Most importantly, the best humor in "Guess Who" comes from the characters and not their race. Obviously the key dynamic is between Mac and Kutcher, but Mac has strong rapports with Scott and Saldaña as well, which is the respect in which this film is most like "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?" (where Houghton had the advantage of being Hepburn's niece). The shift from friction to family is predictable in films such as this, but that does not stop it from being effective because I buy the characters and have no trouble rooting for all four of them to reach the requisite happy ending. In the final analysis, while inspired by an earlier film, "Guess Who" carves out its own path and becomes an enjoyable comedy; that is to say, I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would going in, and that is a pleasant surprise given how disappointing so many movies are where the trailer is better than the film. I am happy to report that is decidedly not the case here.
Final note: My most serious quibble with the script comes in the dinner scene where Percy pushes Simon into telling racial jokes. While the first few jokes are perfect for the situation, I really think that the inevitable point where Simon goes too far is one joke earlier than when the film thinks that it is (and in the joke that goes too far the third part does not fit the other two, plus is obviously untrue just on the basis of the people sitting in the room, so that it is as stupid as it is racist). Fortunately it is the telling of the jokes and not the jokes themselves that are the point of the scene, so this remains a quibble and not a cause for the reading of the riot act.