Bernie Mac has always been a sweet mystery to me, one that I have mostly taken time and measure in attempting to unravel. There have been a few, but only a few, downers that have made my attraction to his art curdle a bit.
I first encountered him in his full glory when Spike Lee filmed the touring Kings of Comedy. He came through like a black runaway train, like the bountiful Lord’s comedy delivery service. Set against the crafty intelligence of D. L. Hughley, the round and floating power of Cedric The Entertainer, and the raw baptist rantings of Steve Harvey, Bernie Mac stole the show.
Since then, he has turned himself into a weekly sitcom staple and a slightly guilty American pleasure.
The finale of his routine with the Kings, and a recurring image in his comedy, has been the deep and abiding love that exists between him and his mother. This might appear to be a cliché, a son’s love for his mother n especially a black son’s love for his mother. For me, it inscribed the righteousness of his sharing. I say all this to let you know that, for me, Bernie Mac is right at home where human beings truly live and connect, and they do this most profoundly with family and with friends.
In Kevin Rodney Sullivan’s Guess Who, which opens tomorrow, Bernie Mac plays Percy Jones, a strong man who is confronted with every father’s nightmare. Who will get the hand and, by implication, the love and attention (hopefully, in perpetuity) of his beloved baby girl? Will it be a good guy or a ruffian? Will he be a rebel or a standard bearer? Will he be good enough for her?
These questions can only be answered by the guy who brought her here (along with her mama) n Daddy himself. What Daddy’s really waiting for, or on the serious lookout for, is a carbon copy of Percy Jones.
In Percy Jones’ world, Simon Green (Ashton Kutcher) does not qualify as a carbon copy. Percy is black. He’s successful, loud, a little arrogant, yet a loving man with all his family nuclei intact. Simon is white. He’s a hot-shot Wall Street type from a broken family, living on the edge. Their paths would never cross if Theresa Jones (Zoe Saldana) had not fallen in love with Simon.
Ashton Kutcher as Simon runs the gamut from hip-hop to stand-up to good guy and seems to be able to work each dramatic convention into his character and make it work. Director Kevin Rodney Sullivan has used a smooth paving stone on Kutcher’s usual zaniness and has come away with a revealing portrayal of a young guy with heart and soulful determination. He wants the girl and is willing to go through daddy hell to get her.
Zoe Saldana as Theresa is conventionally appealing as a black American daughter trying to make a social and spiritual leap of faith and establish herself outside of her family’s aura through the power of love.
I found the mother, played lovingly by Judith Scott, to be a real force for stability in the film. She keeps all the loose ends tied until it’s time for an explosive cleansing, and then she leads the way!
Bernie Mac has said that Guess Who n obviously a knock-off of the classic, Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner, starring Spencer Tracy, Katherine Hepburn and Sidney Poitier n was something from his childhood that so impressed him that he was never able to let go of it. He’s the real star here; he does his mentors proud. With family and friends, he’s in his element. At the end of the film he bigger and better than he was at the beginning. He’s well on his way to becoming an elder.
K. Curtis Lyle, a nationally renowned poet and performer, is culture critic for the American.
