Guess Who Reviews

This slapstick remake of the earnest GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER (1967) actually resembles its socially conscious predecessor less than it does MEET THE PARENTS (2000) spiced up with a dollop of the still-sensitive subject of race. Manhattan photographer Theresa Jones (Zoe Saldana) is thrilled to be bringing her live-in boyfriend, Simon Green (Ashton Kutcher), home to suburban New Jersey to meet the family, and plans to announce their engagement during her parents' 25th-anniversary party. However, while enumerating Simon's attributes — he's sweet, handsome and a successful stockbroker — she neglects to mention the fact that he's white. But there's no missing it when she and Simon show up on the Jones' doorstep. Her patient mother (Judith Scott) is surprised but understanding, while her father, Percy (Bernie Mac), is both flabbergasted and dismayed; he was expecting a Denzel Washington type, not a goofy, unathletic twentysomething in the Jim Carrey mold. So like any overprotective dad, he subjects his daughter's new beau to the grand inquisition and, relying on the razor-sharp instincts he's developed as a loan officer, decides Simon is lying about something. As it happens, he's right: Simon just quit his prestigious corporate job for reasons unknown, and he's trying to keep the information from Theresa until they return home after the big weekend with the folks. The situation is only made worse when Percy catches his future son-in-law in a compromising situation involving Theresa and some racy lingerie. Come bedtime, Percy decrees a lockdown so that he can keep a close eye on Theresa's dodgy date and, in the process, imagine he's keeping his daughter's virtue intact. Despite the sluggish opening, Kutcher and Bernie Mac ensure that this predictably plotted comedy of preposterous misunderstandings is occasionally quite funny — they have the chops to pull off oddball antics like go-kart drag racing and learning to tango in tandem. But the film drags when they're not hamming it up together, and the absence of chemistry between both couples is enough to make you seriously consider leaving before dessert.