Our Family Wedding

Writer/director Rick Famuyiwa's version of interracial marriage is about as much fun as a trip to the dentist. America Ferrara plays Latin hottie Lucia Ramirez to Lance Gross's immaculate picture of moneyed African American perfection. The wedding-bound couple head home to Los Angeles to break the news to their unprepared, and only somewhat racist patriarchs, played by Forest Whitaker and Carlos Mencia. Apparently unfamiliar with the thin-ice romantic comedy genre he skates, the filmmaker relies on unmotivated slapstick set pieces that perpetually fizzle out. "Our Family Wedding" wants to show how two racially divergent families can open up to one another's culture via the union of their romantically committed offspring. The film's mantra, "Our marriage, their wedding," establishes the agreed-upon parameters of the proceedings. What it misses thematically is how that support system will function after the last wedding party balloon has popped. Ideally, "Our Family Wedding" would be the kind of romantic comedy that a Korean guy could take his Arab fiancée to see so they could laugh and imagine how their nontraditional union could last. Unfortunately, this isn't that movie.

(Fox Searchlight Pictures) Rated PG-13 for some sexual content and brief strong language. 101 mins. (C) Two Stars out of 5--no halves)