Guess Who (2005): Movie Review

In the 2005 movie starring Ashton Kutcher and Bernie Mac, many issues involving modern-day racism were confronted. The movie is about a black woman and a white man who are planning on getting married and the nerve-racking process of the man meeting her parents. The father of the woman is very hard on her boyfriend, and the script makes us reflect on whether it is because he wants the best for his daughter or if it has anything to do with the fact that they are a bi-racial couple. Some scenes that suggest there is tension between the father and soon to be son-in-law includes a scene in which the young man (Kutcher) accidentally tells an extremely racist joke. Another scene that confronts this issue is the scene in which the girl’s father is about to meet her boyfriend and he thinks/hopes/expects it to be the black taxi driver that dropped them off. As this is meant to bring humour to the movie, I think it is also intended to confront racism that is still present in today’s society.

            The thing that stood out to me most about this movie is the fact that it is a remake of a 1967 film called Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. This movie involves a black man and a white women, the man of course having to meet the white woman’s family. This movie is focused on the unique situation of bi-racial couples in the 1960s and therefore has many racist tendencies.

            What the comparison between these two films brings to Canadian racial discourse is the fact that if the movie was made in 2005 with the exact same premise as it was in 1967 (a black man and a white woman), it would probably be banned due to the racism and would be damaging to society.

            In a way, Guess Who (2005) is a symbol of the progress that is being made when it comes to racial discourse in Canadian society. The mere fact that it is becoming acceptable for a white women to marry a black man and a black man to marry a white women is an improvement from how it was in the 1960s. The movie however also shows how some people take racism and racialisation as a joke and that it is still apparent in our society.