Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? 1967
I have always known about this movie, but never watched it. Lately I have been using Screen Passes to borrow some classic movies and this one made it to the top of the watch list. I expected it to be a simple story, but I like that it is actually more nuanced, maybe even idealistic. Although it definitely deals with race and the idea of mixed race romantic relationships, the setup is a little more complicated than just that and eventually goes in a somewhat different direction. It is great to see Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn together late in their careers (Tracy is very good, with a strong performance, but was seriously ill during filming and died just two weeks after filming ended). Sidney Poitier is at the height of his career at this point and, while he has some clunky speeches, is generally very good, in a role made more challenging by having to be goofily in love and yet professional, confident, and generally too perfect. Occasionally the writing falls flat like when Poitier insults his father’s generation, and some of the beatnik portrayals seem kind of silly. Otherwise it is a nice movie, probably nicer than was realistic for that time, though the characters work. With a fairly large cast and pretty constrained sets, it seems like this could easily be made into a play.
Written: 05 Nov 2021
Owned on: Digital