Our Family Wedding

By Ashley Hillard

Writer / director Rick Famuyiwa (”The Wood”) tackles a tale of interracial marriage, and how it affects the families involved, in the sweet but slightly lacking ‘Our Family Wedding”.

Another film that’s let down by it’s poor plotting, but saved by remarkable performances, “Wedding” takes a multi-generational view on marriage, whilst adding a measure of comedy without taking away its heart.

Lucia (America Ferrera, “Ugly Betty”) and Marcus (Lance Gross, “House of Payne”) meet, fall in love, get engaged and then have to figure out how to break the news to their families.

There’s an abundance of could’ve-been-interesting characters here, but unfortunately, none of them are developed enough for the audience to really give a hoot about their plights or fights.

Performance-wise, the usually-dependable Forest Whitaker is good, but not great, in a rare comedic role, Carlos Mencia fares better as a devoted and concerned father who has to work on getting his own marriage back on trac, whilst Taye Diggs and Charlie Murphy show up their veteran peers with performances border lining on award-worthy.

Charlie Murphy needs more work, period. His comedic timing and presence would help a lot of comedies to actually, well…. be funny.

Another stand out performance comes from former ”Mad TV” player Anjelah N. Johnson. Her scenes carry more emotional weight than other serious scenes in the film. Maybe she and Charlie Murphy should do a film together as the leads? just an idea!

Look, “Wedding” encompasses a sweet story, and the cast do a fine job, but there’s not enough meat on this one’s bones to really invest yourself in. It’s also a film that’s seemingly having trouble finding not only it’s tone, but a voice. And the soundtrack? Why does one song have to bleed into one another – don’t filmmakers know that such a structure is deterring?

Check out this “Wedding” when it hits Netflix – not before.