In 1967 Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner garnered both critical and popular acclaim, even earning Katherine Hepburn the second of her four Academy Awards. These days however, there are elements of the film which do not sit so well with contemporary audiences but an understanding of the political and social climate into which the film was released accords us an degree of objectivity and understanding. All this would leave you to believe that in forty three years things had moved on somewhat. You’d be wrong. Our Family Wedding is the first offering from director Rick Famuyiwa in eight years. What Famuyiwa was doing in that time I’m not sure but it obviously wasn’t working on the films screenplay.
Arguably the film’s most unforgiving flaw is that it neglects even the remotest form of characterisation in favour of tapping into glaring racial stereotypes as a platform to build the narrative. Whilst the jaw-droppingly racist exchange featured in the trailer (skip to 1:21 to judge for yourself) has tellingly been cut from the feature there are still plenty of archaic moments. At points I did wonder if I were being over sensitive but just at that moment there would seemingly be another example of hideousness. At one point Carlos Mencia, the father of the bride, utters the phrase “Once you go black, your credit rating drops.” That is of course just after he and Forrest Whittaker have had a blazing row over who should get to wear the white tuxedo jacket.
It doesn’t end there though. The film’s bigotry also encompasses some awfully misogynistic scenes including a scene where the groom to be, Marcus Boyd, is discouraged from getting married because his fiancée can’t cook. Whilst the narrative does imply that Boyd’s male dominated upbringing may not be without its complexities no explanation is given to his mother’s absence other than, she was a crazy bitch. On the flip side of the story it is implied that there’s nothing wrong with taking your wife for granted as long as every twenty five years or so you give her a second hand car.
One thing that does go in the films favour is that, quite frankly, it’s not funny. At no point will you find yourself laughing at these stereotypes. It would seem that this may not be breaking news to the film makers as the final reel descends into slapstick farce and shockingly, not even the sight of Forrest Whittaker’s leg being humped by a Goat hopped up on Viagra is enough to squeeze out the faintest murmur of laughter.
There’s every possibility that this could have been a nice little film. Both America Ferrera and Lance Gross are likeable, almost endearing as the central couple and that’s without much more than a glimmer of characterisation. With proven talent like Forest Whittaker and Regina Hall also onboard this could have blossomed into a genuinely enlightening expose of the idiosyncrasies of two fruitful cultures but sadly it would appear that no one gave a shit about making this movie good.
Watch the trailer out of morbid curiosity below.
