Secrets, lies, and revelations light the fires on both sides
Jumping
the Broom is an enjoyable, almost good B-movie. The premise is announced
immediately with a marriage proposal in front of Lincoln Center, a scene that
establishes in an instant that the bride (lawyer) and groom ((investment banker)
are successful professionals. In the next frame, the families are gathering for
the wedding on Martha's Vineyard. We don't know these people very well before
their comic unraveling, but we soldier on bravely in the hope that all will
become clear.
It's not
easy. Sabrina Watson (Paula Patton) is marrying Jason Taylor (Laz Alonso).
Claudine (Angela Bassett) and Gregory Watson (Brian Stokes Mitchell) are the
parents of the bride. Pam Taylor (Loretta Devine) is the mother of the groom.
Shonda (Tasha Smith) is Pam's best friend and support system. Willie Earl (Mike
Epps) is her brother-in-law. We also meet Blythe (Meagan Good), Aunt Geneva (Valarie
Pettiford), and Sebastian (Romeo Miller).
The battle
lines are drawn well before the ferry carries the Taylors to the Watsons'
beautiful house on Martha's Vineyard. The Taylors are a blue collar family from
Brooklyn and the Watsons are, as we are told repeatedly, rich. A multifaceted
collision in the African-American class structure is at hand.
Mom Pam
Taylor, an opinionated postal worker with a self-righteous grasp of her own
customs, is seething by the time she steps onto the dock, just looking for an
excuse to turn around and leave with the first insult she knows will come her
way. And that's what this movie is about: insults. They fly in all directions
and on all subjects - money, education, manners, customs, background. We have,
in a word, emotional chaos. Director Salim Akil delivers the slights in a series
of verbal explosions wrapped in eye rolling resentment. Secrets, lies, and
revelations light the fires on both sides. But remember, this is a comedy.
To make fun
on such a fertile field, the cast needs a wink in its collective eye along with
a terrific sense of timing. Unfortunately, the leads - Paula Patton and Laz
Alonso - lack that sophistication and look weak - victims of the family war that
engulfs them. This leaves the movie in the hands of the supporting players, and
they pick it up with good spirit. Mike Epps' observant uncle is the essential
grand jester. As played by Angela Bassett and Loretta Devine, the mothers' fury
comes close to snuffing out the laughter, but that's largely because the writers
have let them down. What's missing here is a first rate script.
The director
makes sure that every incident in the episodic plot unfolds in the various
glories of Martha's Vineyard - a dock, a ferry, a marsh, the water. We realize
once again, with an appropriate belly laugh, that family dysfunction is a
universal condition. That's what binds the Taylors and the Watsons together, and
it's what binds them to the WASPs with whom they share the beautiful island. In
dysfunction, we're all in that same boat.
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