OUR FAMILY WEDDING

Cultures clash – and clash and clash and clash – in this clunky comedy that tries so very hard to manufacture conflict where there really isn’t any.

Lucia (America Ferrera) and Marcus (Lance Gross) are an interracial couple, who have kept their relationship a secret from both of their families, presumably because they each feel their respective broods will flip when informed. But when the pair get engaged and then make plans to move to Laos to do volunteer work, they realize it’s time to spill the beans... and their worst fears are confirmed.

Lucia’s mechanic father, Miguel (Carlos Mencia), and Marcus’ DJ dad, Brad (Forest Whitaker), hate each other from the get-go, trading insults and racially offensive put-downs as their children wring their hangs. More sensible are the women in their lives – Lucia’s mother (Diana-Maria Riva) just wants her daughter to be happy, while Brad’s best friend and mother figure to Marcus (Regina King) does her best to cool tempers and redirect everyone’s energy into planning a mutually acceptable wedding.

The two dads seem to have one setting: over-the-top. Both behave boorishly and, frankly, it got very old very quickly. The conflict between them never feels authentic or truthful but, rather, the lame scenarios in which they find themselves all seem as though they were spewed out of a writer’s imagination, not reality. Nevermind that comedian Mencia is out-acted at every turn, most notably by his onscreen adversary, which makes for a rather wooden and unconvincing performance. He was the wrong choice for this role.

Unfortunately, the anvil-like subtlety slowly spreads to other cast members – Ferrera’s Real Women Have Curves co-star, Lupe Ontiveros, stands out, in a bad way, for her needless histrionics as Lucia’s grandma – and, by the time the rest of Lucia and Marcus’ extended families arrive for the ceremony, the entire film has devolved into a loud, garish lowest-common-denominator mess.

Did I mention there’s an entire sequence involving a goat eating a bottle of Viagra pills? That’s the kind of movie this is.

What smarts most is that this could have been so much better. There are glimmers of hope and honesty sprinkled throughout and, had the filmmakers steered their vehicle on a less broad-comedy course, it might have been infused with a whole lot more heart. Whitaker and King are especially good and, at times, seem like they belong in a completely different movie. There are some genuinely funny moments – Anjelah Johnson as Lucia’s smart-mouthed younger sister provides some one-liner gems – and enough potential in the film’s hugely likable lead, Ferrera, to craft something a little stronger.

Or a lot stronger.