Cultures Clash Unconvincingly in Our Family Wedding

Comments (0) By Aaron Hillis Tuesday, Mar 9 2010

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Our Family Wedding
Directed by Rick Famuyiwa
Fox Searchlight
Opens March 12

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An unconvincingly broad culture-clash comedy whose Latino and African-American ensemble might've made for a progressive film if director and co-writer Rick Famuyiwa (Brown Sugar) hadn't pandered to the lowest common denominator with brainless screwball laughs, this sitcom-grade competition of paterfamilial egos is essentially Meet Los Fockers or My Big Fat Black Wedding. Afraid to tell their folks about their new engagement, law-school dropout Lucia (America Ferrera) and her bland do-gooder beau, Marcus (Lance Gross), drop the bomb while out to dinner, fueling an alpha-male rivalry between their respectively out-of-touch dads—married, working-class clown Miguel (Carlos Mencia) and womanizing radio personality Brad (Forest Whitaker). "I'll be right black," mocks Lucia's pop, setting the tone for more casually racist sniping and pathetic displays of one-upmanship as wedding compromises are made to accommodate both Miguel's traditional views and Brad's more unorthodox ways. A few of the sentimental scenes, especially between Brad and the best friend he should settle down with (Regina King), hint at the sweet movie hiding within, but then he's nearly raped by a goat hopped up on Viagra.