Guess Who (2005)

Guess Who arrives as a remake that has misplaced the address of its original. Where the 1967 film carried the weight of a nation's dinner table, this 2005 version swaps the tension for a NASCAR lie and a lingerie gag. The premise remains: a young Black woman brings home a white fiancé, and her father, played by Bernie Mac with the weary authority of a man who has already decided the verdict, objects. Race is not a garnish here. It is the engine, the fuel, and the road.

The film's casting does the structural work. A Black family sits at the center, and the white suitor is the outsider, a reversal that the screenplay understands well enough to keep returning to. Percy's discomfort, the office subplot about a boss who disapproves of interracial couples, the quiet assumption that a suitable Black boyfriend waits in the wings: these are the film's real subject. Ashton Kutcher plays Simon with a blank affability that the film mistakes for charm. The screenplay does little with its own material beyond a shrug. The jokes land where they land, which is unevenly.

By the final act, the film reaches for reconciliation and finds it in a party, a chase, and a father's change of heart. The message is warm, broad, and delivered without a lecture. Nothing here preaches. Nothing here challenges the audience's comfort for longer than a scene. The result is a comedy that knows race matters and would prefer we all got along about it. A modest vintage. Drinkable, forgettable, and unlikely to be cellared.