'Jumping the Broom'

'Jumping the Broom' (PG-13) (3 stars)

Writers: Elizabeth Hunter and Arlene Gibbs
Director: Salim Akil
Starring: Paula Patton, Laz Alonso, Loretta devine, Angela Bassett,
Mike Epps, Romeo, Tasha Smith, Megan Good, Julie Bowen, DeRay Davis,
Gary Dourdan, TD Jakes

Getting ready for a marriage is such a strange, stressful and ridiculous
ritual. What with the rehearsal dinner, the preparation, who to invite. If the significant others haven't met the other's parents it can be humiliating also. This strange dance I think is the same between all races and I am always for the elopement strategy. The perceptive new movie "Jumping the Broom" does a good job capturing this though sometimes the movie is exaggerated for effect. This is an appealing movie with a good cast and characters, some we might not like but we understand.

"Jumping the Broom" tells the story of Sabrina who we first see being played by a man after they have slept together. She finally meets Jason who she runs over with her car but they are instantly attracted to each other. After just a few months they become engaged and Sabrina has found her man. As they prepare their wedding Sabrina and her parents have not met Jason's family. They all get together at Sabrina's upper class parent's home on the lake for the wedding. After that there are some interesting plot developments.

Jason's family is very blue collar so we know at first there will be many cultural differences. Jason's mom brings her best friend along and the rest of the family. Mrs. Taylor does not like the snooty and rich Watsons especially Mrs. Watson. The rest of the film deals with the wedding preparation and the uneasiness between the Taylors and Watsons. Something shocking develops that I will not reveal and at first I didn't like this shift in the plot. After a while though it made the movie deeper than just a fluffy comedy. There are many important moral questions here that are asked and I felt the movie handled them well.

This is a movie produced by the Reverend TD Jakes and that is why the movie deals heavily with morality. TD Jakes is like a quieter, less showy version of Tyler Perry. Tyler Perry's biggest problem is the campy and over the top melodrama. His movies while entertaining can be exaggerated and fake and it would have taken the morality and made it highly theatrical. It took me about a dozen tries for me to fully like a Tyler Perry movie. With Jakes it took me just one try with his very good movie "Not easily Broken" and now with this second movie he is batting 100 for me.

Paula Patton has such a great smile, she is strikingly beautiful but always comes off as humble. She does a great job here and I hope she gets more opportunities to be a lead in many more movies. Angela Bassett is great as always and I love Loretta Devine here who is funny and when her character does something evil we don't hate her. The supporting cast is fine and Laz Alonso as Jason is fine though there is no star potential there like Patton has. Actually Gary Dourdan (TV's CSI) has breakout star potential as does his co star Megan Good. They form a very sexy subplot and I actually wouldn't mind a spin off movie based on them.

"Jumping the Broom" has it's problem but it's humor is appealing and I liked it's frankness and how it deals with relationships and morals. This is a movie about family and I like the messages Jakes is supplying with his movies as opposed to the sometimes minstrel show by Tyler Perry. It has a wonderful actress in Paula Patton, two reliable greats in Devine and Bassett and two sexy, promising future stars in Gary Dourdan and Megan Good. It also does not waver in it's appeal even when it gets very serious.