Percy
Jones takes great pride in the knowledge that he is always right, especially when
it comes to the welfare of his family. When his daughter Theresa brings her new
boyfriend, Simon Green, home for a little meet and greet, he is unaware that Simon
has already proposed to Theresa and plans to announce the engagement at he and
his wife’s 25th anniversary party. As far as Percy’s concerned, no man
will ever be good enough for his baby girl and the long line of struggling-artist
types Theresa has trotted out so far have only served to reinforce this conviction.
So as to head-off any unpleasant surprises on this important occasion, Percy,
a bank loan officer, takes it upon himself to run a credit check on his daughter’s
new beau - just to be on the safe side.
The
young man, a successful stockbroker, certainly looks good on paper, and for the
first time, Percy is actually looking forward to meeting one of his daughter's
boyfriends. However, the young man he has envisioned - a dazzling combination
of Denzel Washington, Colin Powell and Tiger Woods - is not exactly the fellow
who shows up at his doorstep. Let’s just say that Percy is somewhat taken
aback and just a little indignant when his daughter brings home a young gentleman
who’s slightly more on the Caucasian side than he’d hoped.
Rarely
do you go to a movie without bringing along a good amount of preset expectations,
and my expectations for Guess Who were certainly not very high. At the very best
I figured it would be terribly formulaic, and considering that it was a remake
of a classic film, I fully expected it to be poor reflection of the original.
In any case I wasn’t expecting to like it. Happily most of my expectations
were off-the-mark, as I found Guess Who to be quite engaging and I also found
myself laughing throughout. By no means does the film escape some occasional stereotyping
and given the times we live in there was no way this remake was going to come
close to matching the groundbreaking power of the Sydney Poitier classic - but
that being said I found Guess Who to be surprisingly entertaining.
I
must confess that my biggest trepidation going in, is that I’ve never been
much of a fan of Bernie Mac. I’ve just never found the man to be particularly
funny and I have to say that I believe he’s one of the most overrated comedians
in Hollywood. On the other hand I find myself in the minority in that I think
Ashton Kutcher is a gifted comic actor who's never gotten the credit he’s
deserved. Anyway I suppose it won’t be hard for you to “guess who”
I felt carried the film. Kutcher’s much more restrained turn as the uncomfortable,
slightly timid would-be son in law is one of his more winning performances. And,
for his part, Mac even manages to tone down his typical bug-eyed approach to comedy,
though every time the movie started running off the rails it was due to Mac’s
standard over-the-top antics and overplayed delivery.
Overall
with Kutcher running in good form and Mac mostly bearable, Guess Who turned out
to be a good bit more funny and charming than I would have guessed. Given what
I’d seen in the trailers and it’s potential to completely besmirch an
American classic, I’d have to give it a pretty enthusiastic recommendation.
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