Promesse d'Amour

Things I liked about The Wedding:

Halle Berry - fresh, beautiful, talented, what a lovely smile... the environment, the sets, the costumes (colors, styles, characterization), the lights and the colors of the scenes... the pear, the shore line, the woods, Marta's Vineyard sure must be a beautiful place. The beautiful white houses, the make-up displayed, the hairdos, the lines, the fact that it doesn't show violence, the fact that it deals with individual choice and the effect our choices have in others life. It suites the purpose of a TV movie, it has a message, it is clean, and healthy subject to watch and to think about. It's nice.

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.

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.

Many wonderful minutes of beautiful Halle Berry in tight mauve or peach pants and white tops. Warm, charming, and a joy to see.

THE WEDDING explores the times and trials of a clan of some of the more elite upper-class African Americans living in the eastern USA in the early 1950's. There are more family conflicts than a viewer can shake a stick at. however, the pacing is slow and the background music reeks of pure "Made-for-TV" sad to say.

More troubling, the production is rife with needless and unexplained flaws. One is that all through the movie it is repeatedly well established that a lighter skin complexion is very highly desired and negro features are less revered. When one daughter marries a darker black man, although he is a medical doctor and a good man, many in daughter's family reject the husband-to-be only because of skin complexion. OK, fine.

But there is logical difficulty because a "very handsome" black man, apparently single and available, moves in next door to the wedding house. The same family and neighborhood elders who uniformly scorn the black doctor are seen admiring the new neighbor. The unexplained problem is that the new neighbor is by far the darkest skinned man with the most negro features in the whole cast. The fact that this man is darker and more African looking than others is completely ignored throughout the script as if the director mis-cast the part of the neighbor and hoped viewers would be too dumb to notice.

Another sign of a weak script is found in the scene where the white fiance announces bad news about his parents expected arrival for the wedding. The scene was simply unrealistic. In real life, mature adults have an idea about how to break bad news with SOME tact. What was said and the way it was said was overly and needlessly blunt, awkward and ill-timed.

Ending at the beginning, watching Halle Berry was the best part of the movie for me.

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.