Guess Who's Coming to Dinner Movie Review

By now everyone knows who's coming to dinner... it's a 37-year-old Sidney Poitier (and his parents), on the arm of a very white 23-year-old girl (Katherine Houghton) who returns home with him to introduce her to the 'rents. Oh, and they're getting married.

Of course, this is San Francisco in 1967, and mom (Katharine Hepburn) and dad (Spencer Tracy) are progressive but not that progressive. The film isn't what you'd call subtle. It's a movie about interracial romance, pure and simple. And it's a bit on the melodramatic side. As an opus on race relations, Dinner certainly seems a bit daring, but it's just not standing the test of time terribly well. Spencer Tracy is off, too (he would die months after shooting wrapped), his third act summation-of-the-movie-so-far being a total waste of time. Hepburn isn't put to very good use, either. The real hero is Poitier, of course, but isn't that always the case?