Our Family Wedding

The adage, "our marriage, their wedding" is Matrimony 101 for any newly engaged couple, and Lucia (America Ferrera) and Marcus (Lance Gross) are no exception. 

They learn the hard way that the path to saying "I do" can be rife with familial strife.   When they return from college and suddenly announce their marriage plans, they soon discover that their fathers - two highly competitive over-the-top egos - can wreak a major amount of havoc on their special day. 

With insults flying and tempers running high, it's anyone's guess if the alpha dads (Forest Whitaker and Carlos Mencia) will survive to make it down the aisle in one piece.  Lucia's mother (Diana Maria Riva) is busy planning the wedding of "her" dreams and the only levelheaded one in the bunch is Angela (Regina King), the groom's father's best friend and lawyer, who manages to keep her cool when the madness reaches a crescendo.

With only weeks to plan their wedding, Lucia and Marcus soon discover the true meaning of love and find there is truth to the saying - that when you marry someone, you marry their entire family.

Famuyiwa has a genuine philosophy on love and marriage and this makes his second film about marital bliss and all things in between.  The Sundance Film Festival winner states, “Nothing is more important to me than family, especially my wife and children.”

 
Oscar winner Forest Whitaker and Carlos Mencia

The writer/director’s debut feature, “The Wood” with Omar Epps, Malinda Williams and Taye Diggs, put forth a comedic male perspective on marriage that left audiences yearning more.

Sandra Varner (Talk2SV): Let’s talk about the “Frank Sinatra” house featured prominently in this film and the rich history it possesses.  How did it factor into the telling of this story? 

Rick Famuyiwa:  Exactly, it has a deep history.  Well, I didn’t want this story to only be about these families and their racial differences.  I just felt like that would be too easy and obvious.  I wanted to make the contrast in which these folks were about to center on where they come from, what they like, their home environments and so forth.  When Forest (Whitaker) came on board we talked about who his character was and the idea that he was this person who had a marriage and a divorce and probably felt a sense of not being in control.  Now, wanting to mend his past and be in control of his future, he wanted complete control over everything including his house.  He wanted it to always be clean, meticulous and pristine.  His character, Brad, is a collector of fine things and has a history about his world.  So, Brad would live in this great mid-century, modern home that’s built in the hills because he understood the history of what the house was; that it was where Frank Sinatra lived.  That contrasted to the world of the Ramirez’s (his future in-laws) and where they live --which is in a beautiful home as well-- in a very historic part of Los Angeles.  Overall, it’s very much about the neighborhood.   I wanted the contrast in the film to not only be about the race but also about who these folks were in terms of what they listen to, what they wore, where they lived and the class structure of it all.

Talk2SV: Let’s stick with race for a minute [in this context] you’ve had the luxury --in your short though acclaimed career-- of being able to direct black men in non-violent roles; many black filmmakers don’t get that opportunity.

Famuyiwah: It’s been a blessing and also it’s what I just naturally do. I don’t know if I’m setting out to do it.  It’s just that when I wrote ‘The Wood,’ the first film that I did, it was a reaction to --at that time--  a lot of the films that were coming out with African Americans were about the violence and the communities and the gang problems and different things.  I grew up in Inglewood (CA) and I would be lying if I said there were not gangs or gang problems in Inglewood.  But my upbringing was so different than what I was seeing depicted on screen.   I felt like this just doesn’t reflect who I am.  Yes, while that’s a part of the communities that some of us have to live in, it’s not what makes the whole community.  There are so many different folks from different backgrounds who live in places like Inglewood or in Brooklyn or in Harlem, that it’s not just this one particular element that should define everything.  So, I just selfishly work because I want to see folks that I can relate to the screen.  I’m not violent,  I’ve never been in a gang, I’ve never been to jail so I don’t relate to that.

Talk2SV: So you’re boring…?

Famuyiwah: [laughing] Yeah, I’m boring I guess, I don’t relate to that stuff.  I relate to relationships and heartbreak and love and all the stuff that we all have to deal with: raising families and working and balancing life and work place.  Those are the things that I deal with so that’s what I want to have my characters deal with.  Because, I’m African American it’s going to bring a unique perspective to that and to the people in that world, some of the folks are going to look kind of like me.

Talk2SV:  Aesthetically, this is a beautiful film.  When you insist on branding a film, how do you make sure, make certain that you’re going to have that at the level that you have?