What can be said really about Our Family Wedding that its previews don’t already cheerfully display? One more in a long line of nuptial nightmares where two diverse families spar with one another, OFW at least presents the context a little differently; the bride’s family is Mexican American and the groom’s African American. America Ferrera(Ugly Betty) asLucia and Lance Gross(House of Payne) as Marcus give sweet, cheerful performances amidst a large cast of worn-out sitcom stereotypes.
Wedding aims sharply at fans of screwball family comedies and anyone who’s currently got marriage on the brain. It’s nice enough and silly enough that it even sort of works for what it is. Unfortunately, there’s always that pesky sense of genuine emotion suggesting how it could have been better if not for the flat screenplay.
I have been so recently beleaguered by ensemble comedies–especially romantic ensemble comedies– that the simplicity and directness of Wedding nearly won me over at the get-go. The storyline wasn’t new when Shakespeare was borrowing elements from it, but here it’s got to set up the possibility of frisson between two disparate clans. The heads of those clans are gamely played by Carlos Mencia as Lucia’s traditional, protective pop and Forrest Whitaker as Marcus’ swinging bachelor dad, who’s bold enough to bring Shannyn Sossomon as his date when he meets Mencia and his wife.
As it turns out of course, the script has already had Mencia and Whitaker at odds with one another long before that dinner, and thus starts along line of bitter back and forth, argument, and misunderstanding as both families vie against one another, forgetting to lift up the stranded couple sitting in the midst of their domestic hurricane.
As the wedding begins to count down, the filmmakers just keep piling on incident and contrivance, with plenty of purely idiotic comedy moments. That might be the picture’s biggest weakness actually; there’s not much that’s truly funny in it. I can understand old bits reused in new ways, but this movie goes completely sideways into territory that may have looked humorous on page but isn’t once you see it. Case in point: Goat hopped up on Viagra. Think about that for a minute. I can guarantee you that whatever you came up with is funnier than what we see.
The supporting cast is mostly forgettable but there are a couple of notable performers who do some nice work and light up the film every once in a while. Chief among them is Regina King as the long-suffering best friend of Whitaker’s clueless, out-of-season playboy. King energizes Whitaker when they are onscreen together and she’s elaborating her sassy, tell-it-like-it-is character with a welcome quality; wisdom. Sossamon in a brief stint at the dinner party, plays her role purposefully awkward and it’s one of the few scenes that’s actually pretty funny.
America Ferrera is wonderful here. She’s bright and lively and sure in the way she plays Lucia, and you can admire her pluck in dealing with the family members. The subplot that involves her fear of her parent’s reaction to the fact she had premarital sex with Marcus is something of a dead-end, though, and it distracts more than it should. Lance Gross isn’t ringing bells and whistles to get noticed and that’s one of the best things he brings to table for Marcus. He’s playing it understated and suggesting the way that the groom can often fade into the background when supercharged personalities start battling it out over wedding plans.
Family comedies and dramas that want to make us laugh and still tell the truth are hard to find, especially done well. Our Family Wedding has its heart in the right place, but it should have grated it into the body of a better story. You can already see underneath the stitched-on dead parts that the materials are here. Look at some of the interactions with Whitaker’s character and the presence of King, as well as the tact the couple takes when dealing with their troublesome future in-laws.
For everyone who has been through the pain and pleasure of planning a wedding, OFW gets enough right that you are bound to smile at least a few times. As for that part where the grandmother passes out because she sees that her granddaughter’s fiancé is black? Not so much.
Rating: 
