They say that when you marry, there are five people in bed with you. Aside from your wife (hopefully) you must make room for your parents and hers. This is realistic. Unless you are an out-and-out individualistic couple who can dismiss the interjections of the people who brought you into the world, you’d do well to have a smooth relationship with the older folks. When you and she come from different ethnic groups within the U.S., your love may last a lifetime, but if the parents and in-laws are more traditional, they may be shocked if you do not "stick to your own kind," as the Greek chorus in "West Side Story" sings.
OUR FAMILY WEDDING
Fox Searchlight Pictures
Reviewed for Arizona Reporter by Harvey Karten
Grade: C+
Directed by: Rick Famuyiwa
Written By: Wayne Conley, Malcolm Spellman, Rick Famuyiwa, story by Wayne Conley
Cast: Forest Whitaker, America Ferrera, Carlos Mencia, Regina King, Lance Gross, Diana Maria Riva, Anjelah Johnson, Lupe Ontiveros
Screened at: Regal E-Walk, NYC, 3/8/10
Opens: March 12, 2010
Shakespeare dealt with the cross-cultural conflict as tragedy, Leonard Bernstein as musical, and Joel Zwick as comedy in the overrated "My Big Fat Greek Wedding." Rick Famuyiwa , whose "Brown Sugar" finds childhood friends becoming romantic and "The Wood" about a groom with cold feet, goes at the struggle as comedy but with quite a few sentimental touches. On the whole, "Our Family Wedding," scripted by the director with Wayne Conley and Malcolm Spellman, covers old territory as slapstick entertainment with little of the charm of Stanley Kramer’s Oscar-winning "Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner."
This is not to say that there will trouble finding an audience. Expect the target to be African-Americans and Latinos, who can most easily relate to the broadly conceived antics.
Famuyiwa, who regularly deals with middle-class relationships, finds love between Lucia Ramirez (American Ferrera "Ugly Betty"), an American woman of Mexican heritage, and Marcus Boyd (Lance Gross), a handsome, soft-spoken African-American who had recently graduated from medical school. His being a doctor cuts little ice with his prospective father in-law, Miguel Ramirez (Carlos Mencia) and none with the young woman’s old-school, Spanish-speaking grandmother, Momma Cecilia (Lupe Ontiveros), who faints dead-away when Marcus is introduced to the family. At the same time, Marcus’s dad, Brad Boyd (Forest Whitaker), already had issues with the bride’s dad, Miguel, when the latter-who refurbishes old cars but is also a tow-truck driver with the police department--hooks up the poor guy’s car and yanks it away.
Scenes of friction roll on, including a loud argument in a posh restaurant, as the older men taunt each other with "hombre" and "bro," but the funniest takes place in Brad’s upscale bathroom when Miguel tips over his opponent’s Viagra stash and is unable to stop the water from creating a flood. Meanwhile in a subplot, the middle-aged Brad, a smooth-talking, divorced radio announcer, carries on with an array of young women, not realizing that his best bet would be to team up with his attorney, Angela (Regina King). For his part, Miguel’s wife, Sonia (Diana Maria Riva), believes that her husband no longer considers her the sexy being of their dating days.
Food fights take front stage in this broad comedy, though the best parts of the picture feature heart-to-heart talks between parents and their respective son and daughter. Compared to their parents, the engaged couple are bland, nor does feminism make itself felt when we see that while Marcus is a doctor of medicine, his fiancé, without telling her parents, has dropped out of law school to become a volunteer teacher-all on her parents’ dime.
OUR FAMILY WEDDING (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Rated PG-13. 103 minutes. © 2010 by Harvey Karten Member: NY Film Critics Online
