Talk about "Guess Who" here:
Review by: Breanne Derby
Plot Summary
Set in suburban
New Jersey, Guess Who stars Ashton Kutcher and Zoe Saldana as Simon Greene and Theresa Jones, a couple dealing with issues of racism because she is African American and he is Caucasian. This is an interesting method of remaking Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? (1967) starring Sydney Poitier, Katharine Hepburn, and Spencer Tracy. Theresa's father, Percy Jones (Bernie Mac) is skeptical of any boyfriends Theresa brings home, and her lack of forewarning that he is Caucasian shocks him as well. Throughout the film, it can be seen that Percy and Simon are bonding over the fact that they both care for Theresa (though in different ways).
Review
Like many films, one of the great flaws in the advertisement for Guess Who was the fact that the trailers showed in theatres and on television for it were far too revealing. Many parts of the film would have been humorous if not for the fact that they had already been shown in the trailer day after day for at least a week prior to the film's release. It wasn't that once I was done watching the trailer I felt as though I'd seen the film, but all the funny bits were ruined.
This film was incredibly corny and unrealistic, but at some times it had to be. When dealing with a potentially serious subject that could end up stepping on everyone's toes, there are times when the film needed to go over the top and exaggerate just to keep people entertained. Still, the humor used in this film was not my style (very slapstick) and I was not incredibly entertained.
The body of this film was really quite generic. There wasn't really anything unique that made it stand out in my mind. I will probably forget it and get it confused with all the other mediocre chick-flicks I've seen in my life. It wasn't a bad film, but it didn't really have anything special about it either.
At the end of the film, during the credits there was an interesting bit that was something like a special feature in itself. The main characters were sitting on a couch watching some scenes from a "home movie" together. This was an interesting new spin on the now common post-movie bloopers or extended scenes, but not really enough to set the film itself apart from countless others.
The DVD comes with a few special features, but nothing mind-shattering. There is a gag-reel that consisted of bloopers that isn't really anything special, and some deleted scenes that were really better off being deleted. There was quite a thorough "Making of…" documentary piece called "Love is the Melody" that went through many scenes and etc. This was interesting to see because the commentary on it by the film's director, Kevin Rodney Sullivan, mentioned times when what the actors said had been scripted, and when it was purely impromptu, and that was interesting to hear.
Conclusion
This film is built entirely around racism. In the "Making of…" special feature, they mentioned that "race is the hook, but love is the melody" and I suppose that is somewhat true. This film is based on the issue of a Caucasian man potentially marrying into an African American family, but also around the fact that Simon and Theresa are in love, and Percy is a good father, though a bit overprotective and skeptical of the people his daughters bring home. All in all, this film is still a chick-flick, though there are some fairly serious scenes (such as the one at the dinner table) that could not have made it in a very serious film. Though this was not a life-altering film, it wasn't awful, and it did quite a good job of dealing with and expressing the racism that still goes on today in a humorous and lighthearted manner.
