Jumping the Broom

Movie: Jumping the Broom

Genre: comedy

Synopsis: Sabrina (Paula Patton) and Jason (Laz Alonso) are happily engaged.  Standing between them and a happy wedding are Jason’s mother, Mrs. Taylor (Loretta Devine) and Paula’s parents, Mrs. Watson (Angela Bassett) and Mr. Watson (Brian Stokes Mitchell).  His mother is strictly blue-collar, living in Brooklyn and proud of it.  Her parents are fabulously wealthy and live in a huge compound on Martha’s Vineyard.  Jason is a momma’s boy, both mothers resent to hell out of each other – and both proceed to do their best to break up the engasgement.  Predictably, things turn to crap, the wedding is off, then on-again and . . . well, you get the idea.

My two cents: First thing – Brian Mitchell.  I had the pleasure of seeing Brian Mitchell sing the lead in Oklahoma when he was still in high school – he had an incredible voice even at so young an age..  I enjoyed seeing him both in Trapper John and in Frasier.  I have found mildly depressing to see how his characters keep getting older and older. . . and I keep waiting in vain for him to break out in song . . . but he never does.

This movie had a lot of unlikeable characters.  Mrs. Watson was wealthy her whole life and acted it.  A really arrogant snob who enjoyed putting people in their place.  Her unlikeability (probably not a word) was surpassed by that of Mrs, Taylor.  She not only liked putting people down and being disagreeable – she took actual joy in causing strife and heart-ache.  She was a thoroughly despicable character.  And her son . . . he let his mother walk all over his fiancé.  His only response was to try to get his fiancé to keep quiet. Of the immediate family, the bride and her father were the only ones I liked.

The movie had a lot of laughs, but I was often uncomfortable by the viciousness of the attacks of the two mothers.  What I did like about the movie is that it did not rely on what I think of as stereotypical ethnic humor.  While both families in the movie are black, very few script changes would be needed to switch the families to Mexican, Jewish, Italian, or just about any other group you could choose.

[90]