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I hate seeing movies that act like sitcoms. If I wanted to watch a sitcom, I'd stay at home and turn on the television. Our Family Wedding is one of those movies that plays for the cheap laughs and broad stereotypes of television. All that seems to be missing is a laugh track.
There's an interesting movie buried under all of the "comedy" here. An exploration of different cultures melding together could have made for a compelling film. Instead, writer/director Rick Famuyiwa is more concerned with yelling and food fights than exploring cultural misunderstandings. Everything is played over the top. You can't critique the acting in a movie like this. Actors by nature find the characters in the words and actions written for them. When the writing is this artificial and stereotyped (when main character Lucia's grandmother meets Lucia's African-American fiancee, she faints), the acting can't help but go that way as well.
I'm amazed that in 2010, we still have filmmakers that are willing to play up racial stereotypes for "laughs". Mind you, I would have no problem with this if the movie were actually funny. But when it's this contrived, it mostly just comes off as offensive.
I hate seeing movies that act like sitcoms. If I wanted to watch a sitcom, I'd stay at home and turn on the television. Our Family Wedding is one of those movies that plays for the cheap laughs and broad stereotypes of television. All that seems to be missing is a laugh track.