The Wedding

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.

Overall, I thought this was a self-indulgent, long-winded film. I didn't read the book and was fascinated to read how different it was. Still predictable is the glorification of "poor" and rich or accomplished as somehow suspect. All of these are the same kind of stereotypes as the film attempts to criticize.

There are certainly some good moments but most of the time, I forced myself to watch so I could finally see how it ended. I'm sorry to say, it wasn't worth the wait. The best part of the film is of course the gorgeous Halle Berry, who doesn't have to do much to be spectacular, and the portrayal of upper class black society. That was as much a revelation as Spielberg's film in which we learned the little known fact that slavery was begun in Africa and there were Black free men in the North during slavery--something of which many people are completely unaware.

Additionally, I don't see bias towards interracial marriage here. I see bias against building enough character development to have us care about the people.

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.