Review of Guess Who (2005) by Dawdlingpoet — 28 Nov 2021

This is a rather predictable movie, that does provide some laughs. Bernie Mac does pretty well at portraying the very suspicious, untrusting father, with his over the top facial expressions and Ashton is good as the rather awkward and self aware Simon.

They end up in some rather ridiculous situations, which do provide some laughs but its definitely not the kind of movie that I'd want to watch more than once.

I think that in a way both Simon and Theresa's father play such stereotypes of their race, I guess it makes you think and it adds to the comedy, of course. However, it is also pretty cringeworthy at points.

Of course its a movie about race and mocking stereotypes, so, like I mentioned before, it is rather predictable. Here are couple of situations/scenes that particularly stand out - one is when they challenge each other to a lap at a go kart ground that goes wrong, another when Simon sleeps in Percy's room and gets an, um, unexpected visitor and one of the most embarrassing scenes involves Percy pushing Simon to share jokes at the dinner table.

I feel that the movie just doesn't quite have enough substance, its based on one joke thats, lets say as an analogy, squeezed for all its worth.

In a way its kind of a confusing movie too, trying to tackle a serious issue and having its serious moments, while the comedy is pretty daft and so there is a bit of confusion, as to whether its trying to be a full out comedy or a drama, in a sense. Its not totally clear and im not entirely convinced that it works so well but I guess if it makes you think about stereotypes and racism and it does make you re-evaluate opinions and so on, that can't be a bad thing of course, plus there are some funny moments, though the ending, may I warn, is very cheesy!.

This isn't an entirely awful film but its certainly nothing special either. If there's not much to choose from and you want a bit of a laugh and this interest you, then yeah, I'd say rent it or watch it through pay per view but I wouldn't bother with buying it outright. This is a distinctly average movie.