Review of Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) by Robb J — 19 Dec 2009

"I don't think I'm going to faint, but I'll sit down anyway.".

A movie I probably won't be watching again although I can appreciate more than a couple of aspects about it. Namely the cast - Sidney Poitier, Katherine Hepburn & Spencer Tracy (who died 17 days after filming his final scene) were just fantastic & the two big speeches from the guys both affected me especially in different ways - Hepburns one memorable monologue was highly pleasing and had me grinning from ear to ear. However, the film offers very little else for me in the way of story or character development.

I can understand that at the time it was important for John to be a successful, wonderful, rich Doctor - almost a saint. But the fact that he is so perfect has extremely dated the movie and perhaps for anyone watching without any sort of context of the way the world was then (inter-racial marriage was still illegal in some states when this film was being made) this aspect of the movie could damage the overall message it tries to send out. It's far too easy to pick it apart for being too contrived, too easy, too unrealistic to make a real point about inter-racial marriage nowadays and this is pretty insurmountable for me, it has sadly dated badly - but worth a watch anyway just to see 3 great actors at work.