The Wedding

There are so many things wrong with this movie (if you have read the book), that i don't know where to begin: First let me say that Halle Berry was great as Shelby. But she was more physically suited to play Liz...

Again, if you read the book, you see that Shelby's hair is blonde, and her eyes are blue, and her skin is very fair. There was a flashback (in the book) to when she got lost as a little girl. She was lost for so long because no one knew to look for her specifically-they were expecting to find a child with traditionally black features.

With regard to Lute McNeil: Dorothy West paints a picture of a man who, because of his upbringing, generally hates women (ironically, not his daughters, though); he sees them as possessions and breeders, and moves on when the next lady strikes his fancy. If he stuck to his pattern, Shelby would have gone the way of the all the other women. In the end, I think she saw that. The movie painted him far too sympathetically-you wanted to cheer for him as Shelby's salvation. But Lute was a dangerous man.

The chemistry between Meade and Shelby on screen was sooooooooooo weak-thus making Lute that much more attractive. That's not the way West meant it. And why the screenwriters chose to change his name from Wyler (in the book) to Howell (In the movie) made no sense to me.

And in the book, the little girl died from her injuries after being struck by the car. Hearing Gram say at the end "oh thank heavens, that little girl is gonna be alright" was just plain cheesy.

This was one of the most beautifully written books this century, and as much as I love Oprah, I found her vision of it for TV completely out of step with the spirit of what Dorothy West wrote. If you can, you owe it to yourself to get a copy of West's final masterpiece.

I first met (and fell in love with) Halle Berry in Alex Haley's `Queen' (1993), TV mini series of some 259 minutes, shown here in Europe in two episodes. An excellent production with careful directing and good acting, especially from the beautiful Halle, even including the necessary aging which takes place throughout the film. I next found her as Khaila in `Losing Isiah' (1995), which was not bad, I suppose, just too predictable, although some scenes showed some pretty good interpretative skills. However, Charles Burnett's job on `The Wedding' – and Halle's attempt to play out the story – was just dreadfully, drearily dismal. There was little imagination, negligible capacity to make the characters `feel' alive, real; it just simply turned out to be another saga-like drudge. Whether a half-black lovely young woman can or shouldn't marry a perfectly white jazz musician, or whether she should or mustn't marry a an honestly black man, is just so out of date, it does not rub off. You would have to be really off your head for the beautiful Halle Berry, or simply an avid consumer of glossy women's mags to be able to stomache this film. Give it a miss.

I read the reviews of this movie and I am shocked and appalled that so many people found this a worthwhile production. While, it is true that the movie is an accurate portrayal of upper class black socialites in the 1930s-1950s, there are so many elements of this movie and the book on which it was based that I found offensive.

First of all, let me set the record straight for all those who do not know. This movie was based on "The Wedding," a book by the renowned Harlem Rennaissance writer Dorothy West. It is NOT based on a true story in any way, shape or form.

I have read other works by Dorothy West and found them to be very interesting. She set herself apart from the other Harlem Rennaissance writers at the time by writing about black upper middle-class, a social hierarchy that has gone virtually unexplored throughout African-American Literature. However, when I read "The Wedding," I was deeply resentful. The underlying tone of racism against interracial relationships staggers me, as I am a multiracial person. I found the characters detestable and the fact that there is virtually no plot progression throughout the novel is a huge problem. Ninety percent of the novel is backstory.

Many of these same elements are portrayed in the movie version of this book to the nth degree. First of all, Shelby Coles is supposed to be white. She is not light-skinned like Halle Berry. She is WHITE. She has blond hair and blue-eyes. She is the product of so many blends of black and white that her blackness has been genetically wiped out on the surface. The fact that they cast Halle Berry to play Shelby Coles destroys the only redeeming quality I found in the book. This is the scene where Shelby gets lost as a little girl and no one can find her because the police report says that she is black, but she looks white. Using this scene to establish the unequal treatment society puts on whites and blacks was the only redeeming quality I found in this book.

There are several other elements that I found so offensive from this movie (mostly character-wise) that it would be impossible to mention them all.

This is a deeply resentful movie about interracial relations, and should not have been made into a movie. This was the last book that Dorothy West wrote before she died, and I'm wondering if that has something to do with its irregular quality. All I know is that if you are multiracial or biracial, do not, under any circumstances, watch this movie or read West's book. Read some of the other books by West. They are so much better.

I have watched this movie several times. And I feel that the only audience that can not truly appreciate this movie are those that have never lived or know someone that has lived such a lifestyle. I am African American and I lived some of the writings in this movie. Maybe not the wealthy aspect but certainly the racism and the entire Black, White, Lighter Tone African Amercian aspect of the movie. This movie gives true insight of how African American view themselves even as race of our own: Are we good enough to get married just for love even though we are the opposite race? Are we even to marry out of race? Are we to marry for money or social standard? The wedding covers all these topics and so much more. Please watch the movie again and try to watch and understand that these events has or do happen in Real Life.

Obviously we all compare ourselves with others to some degree even though it is not a praiseworthy activity, however I had never considered the extent to which class-ism probably wrecked relationships amongst Black families in the early 20th century.

Yes the story was perhaps too fanciful with just about every relationship portrayed, affected by the same issue but it sure does expose the issue as I had never considered it before.

It is interesting to read that Dorothy West had the book, 30 years in the making. I wonder how it would have been received if it had been completed prior to the beginnings of the racial revolution in the sixties with Dr Martin Luther King etc.

Somehow the whole thing seemed a bit "wooden" in delivery but nonetheless as it tackled a subject that I suspect has been unconsidered by most, it was worthwhile doing and not surprisingly needed the backing of Oprah Winfrey to see the light of day.

It put me somewhat in mind of the trans racial issues as presented in the musical Showboat which I would recommend to anyone who wants to explore these issues in a more subtle and tuneful production.