Tasteless slapstick gets cool reception in 'Our Family Wedding'

It once was rebelliously popular to run across the state line and get quickly married in North Carolina. Now, it seems that couples hardly ever bother to run off anywhere - or even bother with marriage itself. Times change, but tasteless slapstick doesn't. "Our Family Wedding" proves that, while making an excellent case for elopement.

Two families are at center stage here - one African American and one Hispanic. Caught in the middle are the hapless groom, Lance Gross from Tyler Perry's "House of Payne," and the bride, America Ferrera from TV's "Ugly Betty."

It has been more than 40 years since "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," yet Hollywood still seems to be shocked by the idea of interracial marriage. And like Sidney Poitier in "Dinner," this film's African American groom is so perfect in every way that there could be no possible reason for potential in-laws to object other than racism. It's heavy-handed, as is so much of this movie.

At the center of things are the Latin o father (comedian Carlos Mencia) and the black disc jockey dad (Forest Whitaker), who dates young girls, has a nifty mod home and drives a sports car. Just to make sure we "get it," they meet when Mencia tows Whitaker's sports car. They hate each other at first sight. Only later do they learn that "the kids" are engaged.

The ritual of a modern wedding, with all the mismatched guests and huge costs, is, indeed, a great setting for cultural satire. Here, all the possibilities of meaningful satire are squandered in favor of two caterwauling old guys who shout, "Brother!" and "Hombre!" a lot.

One by one, painful groaner scenes reach in desperation to go beyond the level of TV sitcom, or even to reach it, in search of laughs. One food fight involving tearing apart the wedding cake is more than enough. This one has two. The director has no shame.

Then there's the scene in which the Hispanic family brings a goat to be killed as a part of wedding ritual. The goat gets into a stash of Viagra and we have a close encounter of the Nanny kind.

Veteran Hispanic character actress Lupe Ontiveros is reduced to doing a a pratfall faint at the very sight of seeing a black man in her house.

Just to add to noise, the Hispanic dad gets into the Viagra himself.

There's a silly softball game melee, which only serves to pad the already overlong ordeal.

The proceedings prove, if nothing else, that Forest Whitaker should never play comedy. He was fine in "Bird" and "The Last King of Scotland." Rather than have him play the straight man who might believably have been shocked and dismayed at Mencia's act, director Rick Famuyiwa chose to throw Whitaker into the slapstick world. Embarrassing.

Famuyiwa, in fact, chose to play the race card at every opportunity.

We've seen the Montagues and the Capulets, the Hatfields and the McCoys. On the other hand, the Ramirezes and the Boyds are hardly believable in their feuding. They cast senseless insults rather than really get serious about anything.

There is one clever scene. This is the montage in which the wedding planners imagine the disaster that might occur with the seating arrangements. Indeed, it does happen at weddings - a welcome moment of realism amid all the calculated laugh-begging.

The one member of the cast who escapes unscathed is Regina King, who plays Whitaker's wisecracking - and wise -lawyer. It's the sort of role she's played before, but in material this weak, it stands out and is welcome.

A stand-up comic might manage a 10-minute routine about the vagaries of the modern wedding ritual, but this script manages to stretch it past an hour and a half.

It might be best not to accept this invitation. Send apologies. You can see material this labored and noisy for free any night on a TV sitcom.

The TV shows, though, are smarter. They add a recorded laugh track.

Mal Vincent, (757) 446-2347, mal.vincent@pilotonline.com