Our Family Wedding

There are bad movies, and then there are movies like Our Family Wedding. Movies so inept that you wonder if everyone involved was somehow blinded to the fact that nothing was working. Did they even read the script, which holds not a single laugh and is filled top-to-bottom with dated ethnic humor and slapstick that wouldn't have cut it in Three Stooges shorts? Did they actually listen to the dialogue that director and co-writer Rick Famuyiwa was having them say? Did they somehow fool themselves into thinking these obnoxious cartoon ethnic stereotypes they were playing were likable characters? What was going through poor Forest Whitaker's mind when he was shooting the scene where a goat trashes a wedding ceremony, gets into his stash of Viagra pills, and begins humping him?

These are the kind of questions I found myself asking as each reprehensible and ill-timed scene fell flat. This is the kind of movie you watch in total shock. Mind you, I had no idea what I was getting into. I had not seen any trailers or commercials for the film, so I was walking in almost cold. In this case, a warning of what I was getting into would have been appreciated. The movie concerns itself with two families of different ethnic backgrounds (one black, the other Mexican) brought together when the Mexican daughter Lucia (America Ferrera) and the African-American son Marcus (Lance Gross) plan to get married. They've been in a relationship for a while now, but have not told their parents. Heck, Lucia has even quit law school for the guy, and plans to travel with him overseas where he hopes to be a medical doctor. She's nervous about how her father Miguel (Carlos Mencia) will react to the news of her dropping out of law school, and marrying a black man who is not Catholic. They plan to break the news to both families during dinner at a restaurant.

Up to this point, the movie had been fairly middling and mediocre. The family dinner scene is the point when it becomes an unsalvageable disaster. They tell their families that they are getting married, and suddenly, everyone starts acting like they're in the worst TV sitcom you can imagine. The dads, in particular, are embarrassing. Forest Whitaker plays Marcus' dad. He had a bad run-in with Mencia's character in an earlier scene, where Mencia towed Whitaker's car. Whitaker's still angry about it, since he shows up at the dinner date in a tiny little car that's way too small for him. (ho, ho) So, when the two men see each other at the same table, they immediately begin behaving like children and acting like idiots. It gets even worse when they find out their children are marrying each other. Did the actors not look at this embarrassing scene and not think of one way it could have been handled in a mature and genuinely funny way? Instead, we get Whitaker making a total fool out of himself, and Mencia getting tongue-tied, and saying things like "I'll be right black" when he gets up to leave. (ho ho, again)

This movie's idea of having two different ethnic cultures coming together is having the Mexican grandma scream and faint when she sees a black man standing in her kitchen, or having the families arguing about their individual traditions that should be upheld during the wedding ceremony. All of the material here is hopelessly dated and borderline offensive. We can't get attached to any of the characters, because no one who enters the screenplay seems the least bit genuine. Every emotion is trumped up, so that when people are angry with each other, they literally start shaking each other by the throat. Every situation is overplayed, so that the characters come across as clueless dolts. There's not a genuine moment, thought, or instant up on the screen. No one gets to act like a human being would in such a situation, so we wonder why we're supposed to care about these people to begin with. The mawkish sentimentality that the movie throws at us during the last 20 minutes doesn't help much.

There are a lot of subplots tossed in that either don't get enough time, or don't matter at all. Lucia's mother (Diana Maria Riva) is worried that she's no longer sexy to her husband. This comes across as a lame and out of the blue attempt to give her character something to do, since she plays such a tiny part in the main plot itself. There's another subplot concerning Whitaker's character. He's a radio DJ who's a shameless womanizer, and never really settled down. The one woman who does matter in his life (Regina King) has grown tired of him never being able to admit his feelings for her, and walks away from him. This doesn't hit as hard as it should, as King's character hasn't really had a chance to stand out by this point. Even worse, the issue is resolved in such a simplistic and throw away manner that we wonder why the movie even included it at all.

It would be one thing if Our Family Wedding was just another throwaway romantic comedy, but this movie just digs deep in the gutters and comes out rancid. The actors have some charm, especially America Ferrera, but are given absolutely nothing to do. This is a startlingly bad film, and a strong contender for one of the worst of the year.

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