Guess Who

The movie Guess Who stars Ashton Kutcher, a white male who is dating Zoë Saldana, a black female who goes to meet her parents who also are black. The movie begins when they are on their way to meet her parents; her father who is played by Bernie Mac is not understanding of why his daughter is dating a white guy. He is not accepting of Kutcher because of his skin color, he does not want a white man to marry his daughter because he does not think it is appropriate. Throughout the film Kutcher and Mac are shown at each others throats from scenes to where they are racing go carts, to them sitting in a car together listening to the song, “Ebony and Ivory.” So, throughout the movie they have their differences and even though Kutcher’s future father-in-law says that he does not see black and white he sees the man inside, everyone knows that isn’t true including Kutcher who has to overcome that in the movie to earn his respect. Also, later in the movie after Bernie Mac loosens up to Kutcher a little, they are shown sitting at the dinner table where Ashton is cracking up the family by telling black jokes in front of everyone. Well in short the first few were funny but after awhile they started to cross the line, in turn upsetting everybody at the table.
This movie I believe relates back to the novel we read Kindred. More so the first chapter of Kindred and how when Dana jumped in the river to save that stranger, even when she came out the father still pointed a gun at her head. This is shown in the movie because no matter what Kutcher does in the movie whether it is talk to Mac, or open up to him, or take him out to eat, Mac still does not trust Ashton therefore he is “holding a gun to his head.” The father in the book says that he was suspicious of Dana, and that maybe she was going to hurt his son. Well, just like that in the movie Bernie thinks that Ashton is up to no good, and is not suspicious of him because he feels like he is hiding something from everybody.
This was a good movie, with a good lesson behind it. Don’t be too quick to judge people just because they are different from you. Wait to learn about the person before any rash decisions are made about them. Try and find more out about them before you give them an unfair shake. This movie and this part of the chapter showed all of this.