''Guess Who'' is a 2005 American comedy film directed by

Kevin Rodney Sullivan Kevin Rodney Sullivan (born August 3, 1958) is an American film and television actor and film director. Early life and acting career Sullivan is a native of San Francisco who began his career as a child actor. He grew up in St. Francis Square in ...

. It is a loose remake of ''

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner ''Guess Who's Coming to Dinner'' is a 1967 American romantic comedy-drama film produced and directed by Stanley Kramer, and written by William Rose. It stars Spencer Tracy (in his final role), Sidney Poitier, and Katharine Hepburn, and featur ...

'', a 1967 film about a black man marrying a white woman. This film instead focuses on a black woman marrying a white man. The film stars

Bernie Mac Bernard Jeffrey McCullough (October 5, 1957 – August 9, 2008), better known by his stage name Bernie Mac, was an American comedian and actor. Born and raised on Chicago's South Side, Mac gained popularity as a stand-up comedian. He joined fell ...

Ashton Kutcher Christopher Ashton Kutcher (; born February 7, 1978) is an American actor, producer, entrepreneur, and former model. He is the recipient of various accolades, including a People's Choice Award, and nominations for two Young Artist Awards, a S ...

, and Zoë Saldaña. The majority of the film was filmed in

Cranford, New Jersey Cranford is a township in Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, located southwest of Manhattan. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 23,847, an increase of 1,222 (+5.4%) from the 2010 census count ...

Plot

Theresa Jones takes her boyfriend, Simon Green, to her parents' home to meet them on their 25th wedding anniversary, planning to reveal that the couple are engaged. However, Theresa has neglected to mention that Simon is

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...

. Theresa's father, Percy, dislikes Simon almost immediately because of his race. Wishing to impress Percy, Simon lies to him about being on the

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and hi ...

pit crew for

Jeff Gordon Jeffery Michael Gordon (born August 4, 1971) is an American former professional stock car racing driver, who is the Vice Chairman for Hendrick Motorsports. He raced full-time from 1993 to 2015, driving the No. 24 Chevrolet for Hendrick M ...

, not realizing that Percy is one of Gordon's biggest fans. After catching Theresa and Simon in a compromising position, Percy tries to force Simon into a hotel, but all the hotels in town are booked. Instead, Percy allows Simon to sleep in his basement on the couch, where Percy also sleeps. With the help of his personal assistant Reggie, Percy tries to learn as much information about Simon as he can as well as creating the ideal black boyfriend for Theresa instead of revealing her boyfriend is white. Reggie manages to convince Simon to reveal that he lied about being a NASCAR pit crew member and also that he needs a $50,000 loan. Simon discovers Percy's lies just as Reggie reveals that Simon quit his job. Immediately, Percy goes to tell Theresa this new information; however, Simon claims he was not fired and instead quit. Furious that he did not tell her the truth, Theresa leaves while Percy's spying and plagiarism of his vows temporarily strains his relationship with his wife, Marilyn. The next morning, Percy and Simon find Marilyn and Theresa to apologize. While Marilyn and Percy reconcile, Simon and Theresa break up and he leaves. On the day of his anniversary, Theresa tells her father that she and Simon were intending to marry. After wondering why a man intending to get married would quit his job, Percy realizes that Simon quit his job due to his boss' disapproval of interracial relationships. Percy pursues Simon and brings him back to Theresa, and they reconcile.

Cast

as Percy Jones * Judith Scott as Marilyn Jones, Percy's wife * Zoë Saldaña as Theresa Jones, Percy & Marilyn's daughter and Simon's girlfriend *

as Simon Green, Theresa's boyfriend *

Hal Williams Halroy Candis Williams (born December 14, 1938) is an American actor, best known for his recurring roles as Police Officer Smith ("Smitty") on ''Sanford and Son'' (1972–1976), Harley Foster on ''The Waltons'' (1973-1980), and as the patriarch Le ...

as Howard Jones, Percy's father *

Kellee Stewart Kellee Stewart (born March 31, 1976) is an American actress. Early life Stewart grew up in Norristown, Pennsylvania and graduated from Norristown Area High School in 1993. Stewart also attended the BFA Acting Program at State University of New ...

as Keisha Jones, Percy & Marilyn's daughter *

Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs (born September 4, 1953) is an American actor and singer. Best known for playing Freddie "Boom Boom" Washington in ''Welcome Back Kotter'' (1975–79), he has also appeared in a number of films and television shows, in ...

as Joseph Jones *

Sherri Shepherd Sherri Shepherd (born April 22, 1967) is an American actress, comedian, author, broadcaster, and television personality. She currently hosts the daily syndicated daytime talk show, ''Sherri''. From 2007 to 2014, Shepherd was a co-host of the day ...

as Sydney *

Robert Curtis Brown Robert Curtis Brown (born Robert Nelson Brown, April 27, 1957) is an American television, film, and stage actor. Early life Brown was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and was raised in Yardley, a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The mi ...

as Dante *

RonReaco Lee RonReaco Lee (born August 27, 1977) is an American television and film actor best known for his roles as Tyreke Scott on the ABC/The WB sitcom '' Sister, Sister'', and as Jamal Woodson on the BET romantic comedy '' Let's Stay Together''. From 2014 ...

as Reggie *

Phil Reeves Phil Reeves is an American film and television actor and screenwriter. He is known for the roles of Charles Swedelson on the sitcom '' Girlfriends'', new Vice President Andrew Doyle in HBO's ''Veep'', as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff G ...

as Fred *

Nicole Sullivan Nicole Sullivan (born April 21, 1970) is an American actress and comedian best known for her six seasons (1995–2001) on the sketch comedy series ''MADtv''. She also played Holly Shumpert in five seasons (2001–2005, 2007) of the CBS sitcom '' ...

as Liz Klein *

Jessica Cauffiel Jessica Cauffiel (born March 30, 1976) is an American actress and singer. She is best known for her roles as Margot in ''Legally Blonde'' (2001) and Tori in ''White Chicks'' (2004). She is also known as a scream queen for her roles in the slash ...

as Polly *

Niecy Nash Carol Denise Betts (née Ensley; born February 23, 1970), known professionally as Niecy Nash-Betts (), is an American actress, comedian and television host, best known for her performances on television. Nash hosted the Style Network show '' C ...

as Naomi *

Kimberly Scott Kimberly Aileen Scott is an American actress. She received a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play nomination for her performance in the 1988 play ''Joe Turner's Come and Gone''. Scott later appeared in films including ''The Abyss'' (198 ...

as Kimdra *

Denise Dowse Denise Yvonne Dowse (February 21, 1958 – August 13, 2022) was an American actress and director. She was best known for her roles as Mrs. Yvonne Teasley in the television series ''Beverly Hills, 90210'' (1991–2000), Judge Rebecca Damsen in ' ...

as Lisa * Richard Lawson as Marcus

Production

The film's working title was ''The Dinner Party''. At one point,

Harold Ramis Harold Allen Ramis (; November 21, 1944 – February 24, 2014) was an American actor, comedian, director and writer. His best-known film acting roles were as Egon Spengler in ''Ghostbusters'' (1984) and ''Ghostbusters II'' (1989), and as Russell ...

was slated to direct.

Reception

Box office

According to

Box Office Mojo Box Office Mojo is an American website that tracks box-office revenue in a systematic, algorithmic way. The site was founded in 1998 by Brandon Gray, and was bought in 2008 by IMDb, which itself is owned by Amazon. History Brandon Gray began ...

, the film earned $68,915,888 domestically and another $32,950,142 internationally, giving it a total gross of $101,866,030 worldwide.

Critical reception

''Guess Who'' received mixed reviews. Review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

gives the film a rating of 42%, based on 151 reviews, with an average rating of 5.41/10. The site's consensus reads: "Despite the chemistry of its stars, ''Guess Who'', a loose remake of ''Guess Who's Coming to Dinner'', lacks the political relevance of the original." ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...

'' said of the film, "A succession of tired race jokes made worse by the bad comedic timing of the bland, under-talented Ashton Kutcher", ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' said, "Guess Who is, impurely and simply, a comic premise borrowed, turned around and dumbed down to the level of sketch or sub-sketch humour" and ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'' said, "Guess what? It's almost bearable". More positive reviews included ''

The Baltimore Sun ''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries. Founded in 1837, it is currently owned by Tr ...

'', which said, "The movie's sweetness, wit and charm go beyond its can't-we-all-just-get-along premise".

References

External links

* * * * {{Kevin Rodney Sullivan 2000s buddy comedy films 2005 romantic comedy films 2005 films 20th Century Fox films Columbia Pictures films Regency Enterprises films Films about interracial romance American buddy comedy films Remakes of American films American romantic comedy films 2000s English-language films Films scored by John Murphy (composer) Films directed by Kevin Rodney Sullivan Films set in New Jersey Films shot in New Jersey Films with screenplays by Peter Tolan African-American comedy films 3 Arts Entertainment films 2000s American films