From a critic’s perspective, “Guess Who” is a nightmare – a supposedly “modernized” update of a brilliant film that is somehow more reverent now with its trendy cast and hip soundtrack than it was 30 years ago.

Fortunately, “Guess Who” doesn’t make such audacious assumptions – it doesn’t try to compete with its predecessor. “Guess Who” would be slick, funny and entertaining, but loses track of its thesis.

“Guess Who” is a remake of the Academy Award winning film “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”, which starred Sidney Poitier as a black man engaged to a white woman (Katherine Houghton), who tries to win the approval of her parents Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn.

The remake follows Simon Green, a white man, (Ashton Kutcher) engaged to a black woman named Theresa (Zoe Saldana), trying to win the approval of parents Percy (Bernie Mac) and Marilyn (Judith Scott). The movie’s first mistake is reversing the roles, which makes a statement about modern race relations the movie isn’t prepared to defend.

Unfortunately, the first half of the movie is pretty much “Meet the Parents” all over again. Percy searches for some dirt on Simon, who has just quit his job and doesn’t want his fiancée to know. The entire subplot involving Simon’s job is merely validation for Percy to dislike Simon.

Thus, the racial element of the film is almost completely bypassed. When it is used, there aren’t many damaging stereotypes concerning white men that could give Percy even a remote bias against Simon. Hence, this plot device becomes an all-too-obvious substitute for the original’s drama.

This isn’t to say “Guess Who” is all bad. Mac and Kutcher have great chemistry, which the second half of the film takes full advantage of. The script is well-written with clever dialogue. In addition, the film also makes reference to its predecessor – Jamal, Percy’s ideal (and imaginary) husband for Theresa which closely resembles Sydney Poitier’s character from the original.

Ultimately, the film is a repackaged romantic comedy. The movie shows all the telltale signs of the genre – there is a musical number, a dance number and climax where a character drops everything to make a mad dash to correct a mistake.

While the movie preserves some of the themes of the original, it makes one critical error.

“Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” argues how two lovers can survive in a world that looks down on their relationship, and if parents should let their children carry such a burden for the rest of their lives. “Guess Who” takes the easier path, arguing only if Simon and Theresa should get together in spite of their differences.

The latter keeps the answer to that question always out in the open, ignoring the poignant conclusions of the original – that such questions never have easy answers.