Some may argue that while on the surface race relations in the United States seem to have changed a great deal since the civil rights upheavals of the 1960s, below the surface there is still a multilayered society rife with racial inequality and tension.
It is obvious, though, that certain things in the norm in 2005 weren’t as commonplace in 1968 when Stanley Kramer produced and directed “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” a powerful film that captured a sense of, to paraphrase Bob Dylan, the times that were a-changin’.
In that film Katherine Houghton, a young white liberal, brings her fiancé and his parents home to meet her parents, Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. These first meetings of potential in-laws are always trying, but this one is even more so due to the fact that the young woman’s fiancé is black. Tracy, Hepburn and Sidney Poitier as the fiancé anchor the film as it explores the implications of interracial marriage in those tumultuous times.
One always worries when a classic is remade to make it “more pertinent” to today, and “Guess Who,” Kevin Rodney Sullivan’s comedy starring Ashton Kutcher and Bernie Mac, certainly stirred those fears. Instead of a remake or update of its namesake, “Guess Who” is more along the lines of the recent hit comedies “Meet the Parents” and “Meet the Fockers.”
Some of the broader plot points have been borrowed from “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” but the tension in “Guess Who” is less societal and more personal. Interracial dating and marriage is much more common nowadays but the scrutiny placed upon a young man by his future father-in-law is surely timeless. This is not to imply that “Guess Who” doesn’t play the “race card.” It does. And in many cases, it does so with fairly funny results.
Kutcher plays Simon Green, an up-and-comer with a high-profile Wall Street firm. He abruptly quits his job the day he is set to head to New Jersey to meet and spend a weekend with his girlfriend’s parents. He fails to tell his girl, Theresa (Zoe Saldana), fearing it would spoil the weekend. Theresa’s parents are going to renew their wedding vows on Sunday, and Simon and Theresa plan to announce their engagement.
While Theresa has told mom Marilyn (Judith Scott) and dad Percy (Bernie Mac) a lot about Simon, she has neglected one little fact: his race. After the initial shock wears off, Percy -– who has already checked Simon’s credit report – begins grilling the young man about all aspects of his life. Percy’s a sports nut, and Simon is athletically challenged. When asked if he’s ever participated in sports, Simon thinks of the “whitest” sport he can imagine and says he was once in Jeff Gordon’s NASCAR pit crew. Turns out that Percy is a huge NASCAR fan. “I should have said hockey!” Simon laments.
In situations blatantly drawn from the “Meet the Parents” playbook, Simon digs himself an increasingly bigger hole. In possibly the funniest scene -– and the one that most brings the racial element to the forefront – Simon, egged on by Percy, tells a series of “black” jokes at the family dinner table. The first three or four get laughs all around, but the fun stops when the next one is deemed offensive.
Like Greg Focker in “Meet the Parents,” Simon can’t win for losing. There’s another subtly funny scene when Percy and Simon are riding in the car. To break the uneasy silence Percy turns on the radio. The first song they hear is “Brother Louie,” a 1970s hit about interracial dating. Flipping the dial we hear Lou Reed crooning in “Take a Walk on the Wild Side,” “... and the colored girls go ‘do dah-do dah-do do-do-do-do.’” Later, “Ebony and Ivory” pops up as well.
Midway through “Guess Who,” an alternate crisis arises. Theresa finds out that Simon has quit his job and Marilyn finds out that Percy’s renewal vows are coming from a book rather than his heart. The two women leave to obtain solace from their sisters, leaving Simon and Percy alone for a night of male bonding.
With the aid of classic football reruns and vodka, the unlikely pair finally begins to realize some common ground. Simon helps Percy by giving him some insights into the ways of love and inadvertently supplies Percy with an apology he himself had planned to use on Theresa.
As usual things work out for the best in the end, even if they don’t go exactly as planned. We also find out just why Simon quit his job.
“Guess Who” isn’t as powerful as “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” or as funny or original as “Meet the Parents,” but it’s good for a few laughs and even provokes a few thoughts.
Jim Wunderle owns Wunderle Sound Services and is a Springfield free-lance writer and musician.
