A Rom-Com with plenty of outrageousness, about a black father “welcoming” his daughter’s new white boyfriend to the family.
Bernie Mac plays the protective dad, Percy Jones; a man proud of his life, and protective of his kin. Before a planned renewal of their vows, Percy and wife invites their daughter (Zoë Saldana), and new boyfriend Simon (Ashton Kutcher), to come stay at the family home in order to help with the preparations. When Simon arrives at the door, Percy mistakes him for the cab driver, ordering him to take the luggage to the front door, whilst making an overly friendly greeting with the actual cab driver (who happens to be black). Once the misunderstanding has been announced, Percy begins a careful interrogation of this young man.
Full of hackneyed script moments, and unoriginal plot twists, Guess Who is a tepid attempt at a comedy film. Whilst the film’s ulterior motive (to announce to the world that yes, even in America there is still some awkwardness between races) is mildly noble, the result is an uncomfortable and clumsy movie.
Mac gives off plenty of steam throughout the film, launching into tirades about the shortcomings of Simon, but instead of offering a sympathetic, or even believable, character, we are left with some kind of miser who seems outdated. Kutcher plays the boy-next-door well enough, giving some moments of embarrassing-yourself-in-front-of-the-future-in-laws successfully, but ultimately his character fails to pull through as the dominant force, instead leaving it to Percy (whose redemption becomes, sadly, the main point).
Saldana is underused in this film, giving her only the torn girl who wants to impress her father, whilst standing by her future husband. Small snippets of gold emerge during her questions about mixed-raced relationships, but these fall away quickly, and go unexplored.
A disappointing film with an overtly preachy message.
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