Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

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Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

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Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

Beah Richards, Cecil Kellaway, Isabel Sanford, Katharine Hepburn, Katharine Houghton, Roy Glenn, Sidney Poitier, Spencer Tracy, Virginia Christine

The daughter of a well-to-do white family comes home from a vacation to announce her intentions of marrying a well-to-do black physician. The prospective in-laws must come to terms with the implicatio...( read more  read more... )ns.

Id: 10904578

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Guess Who's Coming to Dinner Recent Reviews
  • franktowers
    February 16, 2009
    franktowers
    progressive for the times i guess
  • danperry17
    January 3, 2009
    danperry17
    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 ...( read more)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.
  • BiologyBabe2012
    December 3, 2008
    BiologyBabe2012
    Absolutely delightful. Again, I need a day where I can write reviews for all these great films.
  • ceWEBrity
    June 25, 2008
    ceWEBrity
    My big problem with Ordinary People was that it was full of soulless white folks maneuvering through potent issues without offering much insight on anything. It isn't a bad movie, and I could relate to a lot of the struggles of the son, but it was so largely disengaging that most...( read more) of it has left me already. Guess Who's Coming To Dinner suffers the exact same curse - it is a stiflingly white movie, and with a black main character no less!

    I found the movie to be pretty decent, but my film professor brought up an interesting point about it - this movie is all about white liberal guilt. The Sidney Poitier character is a cipher, designed to be untouchable by audience perceptions so that the writers are free to attack the bare issue of racism. It's a noble goal but there are still problems, mainly in that the dramatic impetus of the movie centers entirely around the patriarchal white man. Food for thought, you know?

    Well-acted and well-written (if agitatingly fond of the monologues), I guess I can't hate this movie too much. I don't think it really meant any harm by what it was doing, but there's no edge here, no controversy. It has aged very poorly.
  • dooritor1
    April 25, 2008
    dooritor1
    liberals being challenged.. damn good film.
  • speeddubya
    December 8, 2009
    speeddubya
    The last great Spencer Tracy Katherine Hepburn pairing.
    and Spencer Tracy was brilliant
  • rayld02
    December 3, 2009
    rayld02
    "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?" is such an entertaining movie about going into a lifetime relationship and understanding the pros and cons of whatever decisions we might be concerning. Simple as it may seem, this film starts to appease the startled beliefs of generations and modi...( read more)fy clichés one after the other. The good element that this film establishes is somewhat a perfect timing and space and it entails cognizance in exploration of queries that are bound to all be answered in the end.

    The center topic of this film tackles about racial discrimination that is said to be a worldwide abolishment of true humanity. The film stars Sydney Poitier, a Negro named John Wade Prentice, who by luck meets Joey Drayton (Katharine Houghton) in a vacation in Hawaii. For ten days, they get to know each other and fall in love at the same time. They decide to be married and meet Joey's parents for them to know John, their soon-to-be son-in-law. So it abruptly becomes a "meet-the-parents" scenario in the house of Joey's family where we all learn that she is the only child. Christina (Katharine Hepburn), Joey's mother is the first to know John since her husband Matt (Spencer Tracy) is out for a business matter. She seems shocked initially seeing John the first time. It's just that, she wasn't expecting of someone like him to be her child's husband ideally. We can see in her face a dash of disappointment and a bottle full of shock in awe. Her voice trembles as her lips begin to dry up. But John does not mind at all what he sees, certainly he had expected this from the very beginning; or is he just too confident. Although Christina is having a set of untamed thoughts in mind, she welcomes John dearly, but hesitantly. She accepts him in her daughter's behalf, and not fully by herself. Next in line, Matt arrives at home knowing nothing at all. At first, he is just about to go to a golf game with their family friend Rev. Ryan (Cecil Kellaway) but he has just come up with implications of the weird situation. Learning that her daughter has just brought a man in their house and they are talking about marriage, he cancels out his appointment with the monsignor and talks about with his family some important matters. He too is hesitant about the relationship and is against it clandestinely. He also tries to gather information about John and he finds out that the guy is a doctor who volunteers for social work for people, was a graduate of a reputable university with an honor of maxima cum laude, and has worked for the World Health Organization for years, and so on. John is more than a decade older than their daughter, and their only concern is Joey's happiness.

    But are they becoming too selfish when they said they want their daughter's happiness when they truly are pointing to their own happiness, and that's it. The point of the matter here is that how could a person be happy for someone if he/she forbids him/her to do what he/she likes doing?

    Having a good grasp for difficult situations, John confronts Joey's parents and clears out matters to them. He says that if any of them (parents) is not on the approval for the marriage, then it (marriage) will not be continued. This narrows down the situation and reveals the twist of the plot. Both parents agree what's next is a set of exciting events that are hilariously colored with antics.

    John has made the heralding to his parents through phone. They stay in Los Angeles, and it is about less than an hour drive going to Joey's house. So Joey invited John's parents to come even with the latter's disapproval of doing so. Christina learns first the scenario and she seems more like an inviting host for the coming visitors. It is Matt that is so uncertain about the childish act that his daughter is doing.

    John, together with Joey fetches his parents at the airport. Seeing that Joey is not a colored (Negro) girl, they go up to John and ask him to explain it all clearly. John promises so and they drive to Joey's house with all disappointment and hesitation.

    The plot gets more exciting as we get to the part that I call "meet-the-other-parents". What's next is a clash of ego between two races. It is also a male pride that runs the engine and leaving all the good conversation to the members of the other gender, except John and Monsignor Ryan. Joey and John's fathers are having a hard time comprehending the seemingly stupid acts that their children are doing. But with a not so lengthy and always interrupted conversation, they try to pull up a wise decision out of the entire odd situation. John, with full conviction talks to his father briefly about his decisions. It is quite a touching scene where he dips into some thoughts to ponder, and realizations that are quite evoking.

    The final decision for the wedding is up to Joey's father Matt. Since her mother Christina decides for a full approval, it is Matt that holds the answers for it all. With a clear uninterrupted speech, and considering all of the past conversations he had with all of the main characters in this story, he puts a warm hand of welcome for the next member of their family, John.

    It is not every time that we see a film so beautiful an entertainment and so evoking a story. It is qualitatively one of the few films that never fail to excite the audience although the story is expected to conclude that way, it has elements that are all good to be seen with comprehending, and not just mere watching. The film all tackles about equality and social prejudice that people ought to mingle with their everyday lives. For most people, falling in love is a matter of being colored or not. People superficially try to involve themselves with nonsense talk of racial discrimination and abhorrence. This film clearly endows the true meaning of acceptance and being genuinely happy with the elimination of ideals. Ideals are weak, they are man-made and never created by God. Since we are all created with flaws and weaknesses, we are all bound to be imperfect. The film has all tackled important issues about these coherently involving viewpoints. And most of it is summarized in Spencer Tracy's (Matt) speech at the end part of the film.

    It is quite a simple looking and typically photographed 60's Technicolor filmed motion picture. It has a quite hilarious screenplay and straight to the point lines that are remarkable and charming. The actors involved are reasonably the best in their fields. Spencer Tracy's acting is quite amusing, he reminds me of Robert De Niro physically and acting-wise, Woody Allen. The ice cream scene is good symbolism to summarize the thoughts that this film wants to convey. Matt craves for an ice cream flavor but he doesn't know what it is called. The waitress gives her the wrong flavor and upon dousing into it, he first gets disappointed, and then he learns to appreciate that flavor too as much as he appreciates the one that he craves for. Implication: it is just a matter of acceptance because once we have learned that ideals are nothing compared to passion, then we all are living by what we feel right.



    Just imagine you're in a theater house watching this mini play as significant thoughts are impressed by the actors unconsciously. It is such a tremendous experience to watch a film like this with an imperishable track.
  • cherrishy
    November 26, 2009
    cherrishy
    A classic, filled with great performance, who explained to America and entire world things were changing, but sometime persons can't believe.
  • Yelverton
    November 20, 2009
    Yelverton
    Great film about race relations, and Spencer Tracy's last.
  • austinwduncan
    November 15, 2009
    austinwduncan
    November 13, 2009. watched it in Sociology class, surprisingly not bad, Katharine Hepburn is the greatest!
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