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Source:
rec.art.movies.reviews newsgroup
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Americans believe in monogamy, but truth to tell you don't marry one person: you marry a family. As though being married
is not itself a piece of cake, it's helpful to get along with your in-laws. When you become engaged to someone outside your
culture, you may be ecstatic about your love for each other, but what might your in-laws and, in fact, your own parents think of such an arrangement? We live in a post-1960's generation and such liaisons may be more widely accepted than they were in Stanley Kramer's film "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner"–about a black-white marriage in which Katherine Houghton brings home her fiance, Sidney Poitier, to meet her perplexed parents. By the title you may think that "Guess Who" is a sequel, simply standing the Kramer pic on its head by changing the genders: in this case a black girl brings her white boyfriend home to meet her folks. But where Kramer's take is serious, director Kevin Rodney Sullivan's is droll–with a few sentimental touches to place the movie firmly into the conventions of romantic comedy.
What makes "Guess Who" different from "Meet the Parents" is the racial aspect. We meet the white guy, Simon Green (Ashton
Kutcher), just as he is quitting his Wall Street job, the cause of his bolting made clear near the sentimental conclusion of the story. He picks up his fiancé, Theresa Jones (Zoe Saldana) and off they go to the spacious New Jersey home of his in-laws to be, Percy Jones (Bernie Mac) and his wife Marilyn (Judith Scott). Women being usually the more tolerant sex, Marilyn gives a warm welcome to the young 'uns while Percy, who holds a job as senior loan officer in a bank, is upset. Bernie Mac, however, is such a vital, comic presence, that his flashing, Roger-Dangerfield eyes are exude general hilarity, his comic timing so adroit that he hardly has to open his mouth to make the strong pronouncements: his eyes tell all.
Since "Guess Who" follows the conventions of romantic comedy, the arc is predictable. We are not giving much away
when we say that Percy and Simon, after clashing more times than anyone should expect during a long weekend visit, will get
together, while Percy, having argued with his wife Marilyn to such an extent that the two have parted ways, will find more
than enough common ground to repeat his vows with her as scheduled.
Bernie Mac hits his comic stride early on when he thinks that the driver of a taxi that takes the happy couple to his home is the intended boyfriend, while the movie hits its climactic point midway during a family dinner when Percy goads a reluctant Simon into telling the family some of the racist jokes that Simon has in the past "overheard." While the one about "How do we know that Adam and Eve were not black?" "Because you can never take a rib from a black man" wins applause, the follow-up falls flat and threatens to alienate Percy from his intended son-in-law for good.
Bernie Mac is so good in a role that only he–not Chris Rock, not Eddie Murphy–can tackle, that he makes up for the false steps of the miscast Ashton Kutcher, who appears to think that the role of straight-man must be played as though he were
cardboard. Kutcher is unconvincing whether he wimps out under the pressure of a strong father-figure or tries to turn on
the juice as the aggrieved party who forcefully stands up for himself. Zoe Saldana (Pirates of the Caribbean," "The
Terminal") is perfectly cast as the strong woman who refuses to give up the love of either her boyfriend or her father, the one person who has a clear sense of what makes human beings tick and can therefore convince us as peacemaker. Of the side
roles, the standout is that of Percy's septuagenarian father, Howard (Hal Williams), a guy who is completely bemused by the
relationship that his granddaughter has with a white guy and is ready to kick butt to prove it.
By : Harvey S. Karten
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Source:
rec.art.movies.reviews newsgroup
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GUESS WHO, a chemistry-free film, is a romantic comedy which is sort of inspired by GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER. Simon Green (Ashton Kutcher) is a boyfriend coming to meet an all black family led by a head-strong dad named Percy Jones (Bernie Mac). Unlike the original, it isn't a black man coming to dinner with an all white family but the other way around. Mr. Jones is shocked to find a secret about the man his daughter Theresa (Zoe Saldana) is bringing home for the weekend. Green is white. Are you laughing already?
Percy is very disappointed in his daughter's choices, but it falls to Percy's father to say what the whole family is thinking, when he asks his granddaughter, "What? They don't have any available black men in New York?" Around the dinner table at a most uncomfortable meal, Percy goads Simon into telling a series of increasingly more racist jokes. The audience, like the family, initially loves the humor, laughing very hard. But Simon, of course, finally goes too far, thus causing a further rift in an already strained relationship.
The setting for the plot is a renewal of vows ceremony by Percy and his wife to celebrate their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. At the same time, the younger love birds, Simon and Theresa, are planning on announcing their engagement, unbeknownst to the rest of Theresa's family.
Mac is consistently funny and likeable, but the same can't be said for the rest of the cast. Kutcher, in particular, appears awkward, uncertain of himself and most certainly not in love. His lame performance makes Mac's sparkling work look even better in comparison.
Mac and Kutcher share a bed together, but they are no Steve Martin and John Candy duo. Most of the movie's recycled humor is at best cute. And without Mac, the movie would have been pretty much unwatchable.
GUESS WHO runs 1:44. It is rated PG-13 for "sex-related humor" and would be acceptable for kids around 12 and up.
By : Steve Rhodes (http://www.internetreviews.com/)
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