Guess Who

Ashton Kutcher has his work cut out trying to impress Bernie Mac, the patriarchal head of his girlfriend’s family in this predictable Meet The Parents-style romantic comedy.

Kutcher plays Simon Green, the intimidated boyfriend of Theresa Jones (Zoe Saldana) who takes him to meet his family, led by Bernie Mac’s protective Percy. The twist – they are not expecting their black daughter to be dating a white man. The rest of the movie is spent plodding along highlighting racial differences as Simon comes under the scrutiny of Theresa’s extended family.

The movie is loosely-based upon Stanley Kramer’s 1967 film Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner, in which a white family meet the black love interest of their daughter. At a time in which the subject of race, let alone inter-racial relationships were controversial, Kramer’s work was a brave attempt to highlight the fact that racial difference is only skin-deep.

With the subject now being generally less controversial, hopes for a thought-provoking intelligent movie are dashed, with play on stereotypes being used for cheap laughs alone. However, even from a purely comedic standpoint Guess Who also falls flat. While there are a few decent laughs, they are relatively rare. Instead of clever gags and satire (to which the subject matter would have lent itself well) we are confronted with obvious racial jokes which cheapen the idea behind the film.

Not only is the humour cringeworthy, but it’s cringeworthy and predictable. Take for instance a scene in which Simon is fooling around with Theresa whilst wearing her lingerie. We suspect that Percy will walk in, and – surprise, surprise – he does. Sometimes it’s good for the audience to be a step ahead of the characters and see what’s coming, but not for an entire movie.

Added to the predictability of the gags is their repetition. The 106 minutes running time is spent watching the same few basic jokes, which were hardly hilarious the first time, rehashed time and time again.

If the movie has a saving grace, it’s Bernie Mac. While Kutcher fails to impress, Mac’s timing and facial expressions allow him to lift the movie up to a standard that it would have been hard pressed to achieve without him in the role.

Guess Who is predictable, unoriginal and probably best left alone, unless you want a brainless and non-taxing comedy which does what other films have done before (Meet The Parents, Father Of The Bride), but not half as well.