Jumping the Broom

I guess it's becoming a tradition that around this time of year, we get a comedy about mismatched families coming together for a wedding. Last spring, we had the horrible Our Family Wedding, which you may remember ended up on my Worst of 2010 list. Jumping the Broom (named after an African American wedding tradition) is nowhere near as bad as that film was, but it still never stands out as being truly special. It's too mediocre to make much of an impression, good or bad.

This time, we have two different African American families coming together - the upscale Watson family (who are wealthy, and live in a huge mansion in Martha's Vineyard), and the blue collar Taylor family. They are brought together when the Watson daughter, Sabrina (Paula Patton) prays to God for a good man after a string of disappointing one-night stands. Her prayers are answered when she literally runs into the Taylor son, Jason (Laz Alonso), with her car and they begin dating soon after. "Five incredible months later" (as a subtitle informs us), it's revealed that Sabrina's job is forcing her move to China. Not wanting a long distance relationship, Jason proposes, and they plan to marry the very next month. The wedding is to take place at the mansion home of Sabrina's wealthy, but emotionally distant parents, Claudine (Angela Bassett) and Greg (Brian Stokes Mitchell). This immediately does not sit well with Jason's working-class mother, Pam (Loretta Devine), who seems to hold a grudge against the wealthy, and pretty much everyone else who is not in her close circle of family and friends. She's also not happy that she hasn't had a chance to meet her future daughter-in-law or her family before the wedding.

As the relatives, friends, and guests trickle in for the wedding, multiple plotlines and character relationships are thrown about seemingly at random by screenwriters Elizabeth Hunter and Arlene Gibbs. There are deep buried family secrets, grudges between friends and family members, family traditions argued about, dinner conversations that turn sour when someone says the wrong thing, a sexy relationship for the chef who's catering the wedding, and disputes between couples about money. The only plot that comes close to working is the cute subplot concerning Pam's friend (Tasha Scott) becoming attracted to a much younger man (Romeo Miller) who is interested in older women. Like most of the many other subplots it's competing with for out attention, its resolution is swift and basically an afterthought. But, at least both Scott and Miller get some nice moments in there. Indeed, the last ten minutes or so of the movie is devoted entirely to one hasty, unsatisfying conclusion after another.

Although the cast is made up of game actors, Jumping the Broom ultimately fails due to the fact that very few of them are actually likable or seem real to begin with. They either exist to spout one liners, look disapprovingly at everyone else, or start trouble. The key offenders are Bassett and Devine, who play the mothers, and spend most of the film being so manipulative or mean-spirited, it's hard to generate any good feeling for them. It's not that their performances are bad, they're just stuck playing women that nobody could possibly relate to. Bassett is untrusting, cold, and generally looks down at everyone, especially her husband, who she thinks is having an affair. Naturally, Mitchell as her long-suffering husband winds up getting our sympathy, since he comes across as being the more rational and sane person in the couple. We know he's not having an affair. Not only does Mitchell play him too nice, but the script is constantly contorting itself to make it look like he is. When his true secret is revealed, it's pretty much forgotten about as soon as he brings it up, only for it to get resolved in a throwaway line in the last five minutes.

As for Devine, she's supposed to be playing a proud working-class woman who is overly protective of her adult son, but often comes across as being just plain nuts. She works at the post office, and constantly keeps her customers waiting in long lines as she goes off to chat with her friends about her problems. She arrives at the mansion home with a huge chip on her shoulder, and finds something to criticize about everything around her. She's constantly unpleasant, obnoxious, and when she overhears a potentially damaging family secret, she's all too eager to share it, even if it means it will destroy certain people who will be joining her family soon. She's supposed to go through a redemptive moment near the end, but I didn't buy it. She doesn't deserve the happy ending she gets. Neither do a lot of the people in this movie. Even though everyone apparently comes together as one big happy family, so many of the resolutions seems forced, I just didn't buy it.

Jumping the Broom is the kind of middle of the road, throwaway movie we usually get to compete with the summer blockbusters that start rolling in. I'll be hard-pressed to remember it months from now, and I'm sure almost everyone else who sees it will feel the same. It's certainly not unwatchable, but boy, is it ever forgettable.

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