Review: Our Family Wedding
Please welcome contributor Laurie Coker, whose reviews you can also read at True View Reviews.
Romantic comedies always hit and miss with me. I like them, for the most part, but have grown weary of the formulaic plots and pat endings. Still, with fresh writing, quality gags and dialogue, a good director coupled with a fine screenwriter, can make even formulaic fun. Director/co-writer Rick Famuyiwa and screenwriters Wayne Conley and Malcolm Spellman offer some hilarious moments in Our Family Wedding. Had they left out at least three very stupid gags, it would have been a fine romantic comedy. But they did not avoid the silly, actually asinine, defeating what could have been a decent film overall, which will most certainly disappoint some.
One of my favorite actresses, America Ferrera, plays Lucy Ramirez, a young woman who drops out of law school, becomes engaged to an African-American man, Marcus (Lance Gross), who is heading to Laos as a physician for Doctors Without Borders. Lucy does so without mentioning any of it to her very conservative and traditional Hispanic parents, Miguel (Carlos Mencia) and Sonia (Diana-Maria Riva). Making matters worse, on the weekend they arrive, Miguel has a not so pleasant (and racially charged) encounter with Marcus's father Brad (Forest Whitaker). When the families finally meet, things get wild and cultural traditions clash in crazy mayhem.
Television comic Mencia (looking quite trim) and Whitaker, who plays a womanizing late-night radio talk-show host, have a great onscreen chemistry making for some very funny moments. They also are caught up in one of Our Family Wedding's most ludicrous sequences involving a goat and a bottle of Viagra. Ferrera and Gross, too, have a great chemistry and both are beautiful people. I honestly felt the couple's love. I personally think Ferrera can do no wrong -- from Real Women Have Curves to television's Ugly Betty. She has true talent. Gross is talented and uber-hunky. Truthfully, it is the cast that makes this film regardless of its faults and it manages to please from start to finish. Forget that Famuyiwa sticks in at least three absolutely superfluous gags -- one involving the aforementioned goat and the other two involving wedding cakes and food fights.
I particularly enjoyed Anjelah N. Johnson as Izzie, Lucy's younger sister, a bit of a tomboy and the character who is given some of the film's best jokes. Johnson's comic timing is impeccable. Additionally, Riva, whom I have never seen before, plays Sonia, the loyal and semi-dissatisfied wife of a man who has grown so used to her that he forgets Valentine's Day and refers to vehicles as beautiful and sexy, but his wife as "fine." Casting Riva hits the mark. Gross is perfect also and so believable as Lucy's loving fiancée. Precious and talented Regina King, as Whitaker's longtime lawyer and potential love interest, rounds out the lead group, and a hilarious, raucous ensemble cast of culturally diverse characters make this film better than it perhaps should have been.
A real plus for me is the film's very funny take on culture differences. Our Family Wedding takes on issues of race and class, particularly in modern-day Los Angeles, with a bit less cynicism than other films like it and with a far better sense of humor. When I attended the screening, the theatre housed a nicely diverse audience and laughter abounded and many even applauded as the credits rolled. I laughed out loud many times, and even though the silly scenes put me off a bit, in general I felt pleased when I left the theatre. The film's message is clear and is it is delivered with a light heart. One standout moment occurs when the two families are attempting to set up the reception seating chart, and Famuyiwa flashes to the consequences of what could happen if certain culturally or traditionally diverse parties were to be seated near each other -- over the top, but hilarious!
The PG-rated Our Family Wedding does run extremely true to the rom-com formula, especially in its predictability and finale, but the trip does harbor ample laughs to make up for most of that. I am placing a B- in my grade book. It is better than several others in the genre that have come out this year, even if not perfect.