Promesse d'Amour

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.

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.

The Wedding (1998) was a fine attempt to bring to life a brilliant book. Although I understand that Oprah Winfrey may have wanted to have "stars" in her movie, aesthetically they just don't fit. The book states again and again that the Coles family could have "passed" for white had they wanted to. There is a very important part of the book that describes the day Shelby got lost and everyone (read: white) thought they were looking for a little "colored" girl and therefore it couldn't be this beautiful BLUE-EYED, BLOND-HAIRED, little girl...until she tells them her name, and then they're horrified.

Although I think this cast did a wonderful job, I can't help but be bothered by the blatant disregard for a major plot point in Dorothy West's novel. That being said, if the viewer is aware beforehand, I think this movie is worth seeing simply because there are so few factual representations of African-Americans in the media. I know many African-American families that live and act as the Coles family does; I have yet to meet an African-American family that lives or acts the way the Parkers do.

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.