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March 19, 2010
Review - " Our Family Wedding "  -  (in theaters) By Roland Hansen
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Like most broad comedies, “Our Family Wedding” comes overstuffed with extreme characters struggling with daunting family
and personal issues that will nonetheless be resolved in 90 minutes or less. A divorced playboy, Brad can’t get excited
about his son’s decision to marry, just as he can’t see that his best pal and lawyer Angela (Regina King) is the perfect
woman for him.

Fiercely traditional and protective, Miguel can’t cope with the notion of his daughter marrying a non-Latino and moving so
far from home. He’s too busy running his tow truck and classic car restoration businesses to notice that his own union is in
trouble: His wife Sonia (Diana-Maria Riva) feels so neglected and lost in their marriage that sardonic younger daughter
Isabella (Anjelah N. Johnson) vows never to wed.

Egged on by Lucia’s screechy grandmother (Lupe Ontiveros), the Ramirezes insist that their daughter’s nuptials incorporate
several Mexican traditions, which prompts Brad to make his own series of wedding demands. Montages chronicle the one-
upmanship that ensues, with Lucia and Marcus continually muttering the mantra “our marriage, their wedding.”

Still, the couple starts feeling the strain
and wondering if they should get married
after all. Marcus, who has trust and
abandonment issues, takes it personally
that Lucia, who needs to cut a few apron
strings, won’t tell her parents that she
has dropped out of law school to become
a teacher instead of an overachieving
attorney.

With several solid performances and its
share of sweet and even clever moments,
“Our Family Wedding” occasionally
blooms with potential. But the goat and
other silly notions it gobble it up like so
much Viagra.
Our Family Wedding
Directed by: Rick Famuyiwa
Starring: America Ferrera, Forrest Whitaker, Carlos Mincia, Regina
King, Lance Gross




Just before the titular nuptials of the comedy “Our Family Wedding”
march down the aisle, a destined-for-the-barbecue goat runs amuck,
gobbling down Viagra, tipping over tables and trampling decorations.

But lame slapstick, predictable drama and easy stereotypes wreak
havoc on director/co-writer Rick Famuyiwa’s (“Brown Sugar”) culture-
clash tale long before the goat does its damage.

In Los Angeles, slick disc jockey Brad Boyd (Oscar winner Forest
Whitaker) returns from his latest tryst with a young thing to discover
tow truck driver Miguel Ramirez (Carlos Mencia) hitching up his tony,
illegally parked car. The guys exchange racial slurs and heated insults
as Miguel hauls away Brad’s wheels.

The alpha males are unexpectedly reunited over dinner at a fancy
restaurant, where their college-age children, Marcus (Lance Gross)
and Lucia (America Ferrera), announce they are engaged. To their
relatives’ horror, the couple plan to tie the knot quickly and move
overseas so Marcus, a recent medical school grad, can serve with
Doctors Without Borders.