Dinner Remake Guess Who Surprisingly Ok

The 1967 film Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner starring Spencer Tracey, Katherine Hepburn and Sidney Poitier is not a classic. Groundbreaking, willing to take chances, bracingly tackling social taboos, yes, but as a dramatic motion picture it is not anywhere near as good as people seem to think it is. Much of dialogue is stilted while the plot itself never reaches quite as far as it really needs to in order to be completely successful. (Poitier, however, is brilliant. There is a reason he’s considered one of Hollywood’s greatest actors, and it is performances like this that prove it.)

Still, remaking Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner with That 70’s Show funnyman Ashton Kutcher and seemingly everywhere comedian Bernie Mac (Mr. 3000) in, respectfully, the Poitier and Tracey roles just feels like a bad idea. Not because issues of interracial romance aren’t still worth looking at, if anything with all the debate surround civil unions and gay marriage it’s more topical than ever, it’s that it’s hard to see these two actors, especially Kutcher, having the dramatic chutzpah to pull it off. Besides, in our watered-down age of looking at complex social issues on a purely surface level, a studio willing to put out a feature with the required teeth to make it even remotely worthwhile is beyond minute.

So the surprise is that Kevin Rodney Sullivan’s (Barbershop 2, How Stella Got Her Groove Back) comedic update on that old chestnut Guess Who is, not only surprisingly tolerable, but at times even commendable. Flipping the original concept; white boyfriend meets the parents of his African American lady love; Sullivan and company craft a delicately amusing and mildly charming picture full of small delights and even a dramatic bombshell or two. Sure, it doesn’t have the daring of its predecessor (for all its faults, Stanley Kramer’s original didn’t mince words and was completely unafraid to offend), more akin to Meet the Parents than social commentary, but it’s still a nice enough diversion and one audience’s won’t feel burned by.

There are two moments, however, where Sullivan takes Guess Who into dangerous territory showcasing the type of movie this might have been. The first is a dinner conversation between Kutcher’s Simon and Mac’s Percy, the latter egging the older on to tell an increasingly more absurd succession of black jokes. Where at first the family is able to accept the humor in many of these, laughing whole-heartedly at the majority, at a certain point Percy can’t help but inadvertently cross the line and tell one gag even the least politically correct person would find offensive. It’s unsettling, and I bristled noticeably in my seat during the whole ten minute scene.

The other moment is far briefer, blink and you’ll miss it, and I for one didn’t see it coming. It is right at the point where Simon sees his relationship with Theresa (Zoe Saldana, Drumline) coming to an end. He’s frustrated, tired of being bent and wrapped around the emotional wringer by Percy. Suddenly he blurts out what we as an audience knows the affluent family, and maybe even many of us in the audience, has been thinking all along. “It doesn't matter what I say, you're going to think I'm a racist!” The silence after that particular remark is deafening.

Unfortunately, the movie lacks the courage to tackle any more issues or remarks like those. Instead, it’s content to let audience giggle at the sight of Mac and Kutcher lying in bed together, dancing the tango or engaging in a mono-y-mono go-cart race (as particularly awful a sequence as I’ve seen this year). The screenplay (adapted from the original by a whole cadre of writers) isn’t concerned about tackling anything even remotely controversial, instead more than content to let its two stars playfully bicker and banter back and forth like a modern day Mutt and Jeff.

Luckily, both of the stars are particularly good at doing just that. While Kutcher isn’t the greatest actor by any stretch of the imagination, and I can think of far better straight men to play against Mac, for the most part he still holds his own. But the real reason to see Guess Who is for eponymous Fox television star Bernie. Mac steals the picture like thunder breaking across a pristine night sky. He growls and grimaces his way from scene to scene, delivering his most self-assured and bitingly acerbic big screen performance yet.

Okay, so when all was said and done I did want more, a lot more, from this movie. It doesn’t take the chances it should and it sure as heck isn’t going to win any awards. But Sullivan directs effortlessly and the performers share a startlingly melodious give-and-take chemistry that manages to wash over even the roughest edges. While rushing out and paying ten bucks to see it in the theater is a stretch, Guess Who sure as heck will make a pleasing enough rental after it makes its way quickly to DVD.

Film Rating: êê1/2  (out of 4)