'Guess Who' could use a better script

By Jack Garner
Gannett News Service

GUESS WHO (PG-13) Two-and-a-Half Stars (Fair-to-Good) A comedy remake of "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," with Ashton Kutcher as the white boyfriend meeting her girlfriend's African-American parents. Bernie Mac plays the father for director Kevin Rodney Sullivan. Columbia, 105 minutes.

Now, with a 2005 remake, the shocks are few and far between. In fact, "Guess Who" is a comedy that now seems to have more in common with "Meet the Parents" than a cross-racial social document. That, we suppose, would have to be called progress.

Ashton Kutcher stars as Simon Green, a supposed Wall Street wunderkind who hopes to marry African American Theresa Jones (Zoe Saldana). And, as the film opens, they're en route to a weekend with her family in New Jersey.

Awaiting them are Mom Marilyn Jones (Judith Scott) and Dad Percy Jones (the irrepressible Bernie Mac). And Simon is shocked when Theresa admits she hasn't told her folks her boyfriend is, as he's says, "pigmentation challenged."

Without a bat of the eye, Mom is totally accepting. Dad is another matter. Although he's initially unsettled by the suitor's color, other issues quickly push race aside. A panicked Simon, you see, has lied to his prospective father-in-law about his job (not telling him he just quit) and about his attitude about sports. (Percy is a big sports fan; Simon has no interest.)

This leads to the film's first major faux paux: Simon fibs that he loves NASCAR and once worked for racecar driver Jeff Gordon, on a stereotypical theory that Percy wouldn't be a NASCAR fan. It turns out he's a big fan. Yet, the joke never pans out, ending in a silly and superfluous episode at a go-kart track that seems to have been pasted into "Guess Who" from another film.

Fortunately, the comic chemistry between Mac and Kutcher is strong enough to withstand the miscues and to sell the film's stronger humor. Kutcher trips and dives through an impressive range of pratfalls and physical comedy, while Mac contributes a potent range of double-take reactions and hilariously flippant line readings.

Under director Kevin Rodney Sullivan (of "How Stella Got Her Groove Back"), the script divides "Guess Who" into three distinct chapters — the first (and funniest) exploits the race issue as the immediate problem for Percy and Simon, the second moves quickly into the more justifiable issues of trust and responsibility, and the third makes Percy and Simon unlikely co-conspirators in opposition to the forceful women in their lives.

Thus, "Guess Who" moves from edgy sassiness to conventional romantic comedy and the laughs gradually diminish, though enough remain to keep a smile on your face.

Rated PG-13, with profanity, innuendo and racial humor.