Review of Our Family Wedding (2010) by Justin M — 25 Sep 2010

This lightweight culture-clash wedding "comedy" fails to bring the laughs, the warmth, or the romance. Rick Famuyiwa's flacid film offers a bit of promise and novelty in its setup--a culture-clash invovling Mexican-Americans and African-Americans--yet fails to capitalize on it.

What is Oscar winner Forest Whitaker doing here? Perhaps he wished to show off his less serious side to audiences who have known him for powerful dramatic performances like 'The Last King of Scotland.

' He seems game, but even an actor of his caliber can only take the weak material so far (the late Bernie Mac would've been spot on in his role). He's mismatched with comic Carlos Mencia, who's a cut-rate George Lopez.

I've never been a fan of Mencia, and here he's just as unfunny as he's ever been. But it's nice to see him play his age for once. America Ferrera is a refreshing presence, an unconventional beauty who looks like a real young woman, not a Hollywood painted up Barbie Doll.

Lance Gross is a genial, uninteresting leading man, so Ferrera easily has the upper hand in their scenes together. The gorgeous and soulful Regina King is very good. Famuyiwa trots out the tricks of the desperate--food fights, the family softball game, granny slapstick, goat-on-Viagra jokes, none of which stick.

The film's fatal flaw is defining the dynamic between the two families solely on their race. Stereotypical ethnic arrows are slung back and forth with little sting or wit. Instead of underplaying the differences the script beats them to death, and then some.

The one scene that's expertly played and delivers laughs is a lunch featuring the hilarious Charlie Murphy and a funny Taye Diggs. Even the later "awww" scenes feel stale and unconvincing.

So we're left with few precious laughs and even less heart in what could have been an edgy racial riff on the formula "Meet the Parents" all but perfected. This isn't perfect, it's perfunctory.