Review of Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) by Daniel P — 03 Jan 2009

One of the all-time greatest movies you will ever see: Sidney Poitier in a tour de force, Katharine Hepburn in an Academy Award-winning role, and Spencer Tracy's final role as the father who just can't seem to change with the times all come together to easily overcome the film's only weak spot: Katharine Houghton's inexperienced acting. An absolute powderkeg of a film that takes its time, letting the story out in short scenes that feature meaningful conversations that flip from heart-wrenching to heart-warming and back again, and from time to time, some desperately needed levity. Beautifully shot and filled with some terrifyingly dark comedic moments (you know you shouldn't laugh, but you just can't help it), this is a film not to be missed. So good, in fact, that I may watch the Ashton Kutcher and Bernie Mac take-off for the sole purpose of ripping it to shreds... man, that would feel good.

Though it's a little speechy, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner is a film that you absolutely must see before you die (but you likely knew that before Steven Jay Schneider told you so); and in their greatest injustice, AFI bumped this off its Top 100 last time around to add (to name only two terrible inclusions!) Titanic and The Sixth Sense. For shame.