If you asked me, I would straight out tell you, I am an Ashton Kutcher hater. My distaste for Ashton stems mostly from his annoying show “Punk’d,” but also from his two most recent films Just Married and My Bosses Daughter, and at least a little from his bizarre relationship with Demi, Bruce and the kids.
So, it was all I could do to keep an open mind going into see his latest movie, the role-reversing, comic remake of the classic Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, Guess Who.
Percy Jones (Bernie Mac) is a very protective father, when his daughter (Zoe Saldana) tells him she is bringing home her new boyfriend Simon Green (Ashton Kutcher), Percy does some checking up on him. He finds Simon has a good job, good credit, and seems to be a good match for his daughter. There is only one thing he doesn’t learn, Simon is white and the Joneses are Black.
Can two people from different races get along and fall in love; can Percy and the Joneses learn to accept Simon even though he is different?
Well, despite this obvious plot set up, and to my complete and utter surprise I found this film to be very funny and even rather clever.
Poking fun at the differences between the races is far from original, but Guess Who does a descent job of keeping the dialogue and perspectives fresh.
The other thing that surprised me was the performance by Ashton Kutcher. He is perfectly cast and was able to get me to forget the fact he is annoying.
Bernie Mac is hilarious, and there is an undeniable comic chemistry between him and Ashton.
At points the film gets almost cartoonish with its visual jokes and at points some of the stereotypes portrayed are played up solely to get easy laughs, but in general the films mistakes are forgivable, and Guess Who is a pretty good movie.
