Headline: My Big Fat Mexican Wedding

Is the idea of a Chicano marrying an African-American really all that shocking? Maybe it is in L.A. where gang warfare has brothers and cholos gunning down each other in bloody drive-bys. Elsewhere, I suspect it’s not that big a deal, but don’t tell that to the Ramirezes and the Boyds, the clans that come to butt heads in Our Family Wedding.

For Lucia Ramirez (America Ferrara) and Marcus Boyd (Lance Gross) fell in love while in grad school at Columbia University on the East Coast. He’s a doctor, and she was studying to be a lawyer, but dropped out (without her parents permission) to volunteer at a charter school. Anyhow, they both hail from Los Angeles, and return to their hometown to inform their parents of their plans to marry in two weeks.

Trouble is Lucia and Marcus’ fathers (Forest Whitaker and Carlos Mencia) already hate each other and their offspring’s impending wedding only gives the prejudiced patriarchs an excuse to up the antipathy. So, they each do their best to control the couple’s plans in accordance with their own cultural traditions: Catholic vs. Baptist, jumping the broom vs. a veil and lasso, etcetera.

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