Jumping the Broom

Sabrina is born to the wealthy and affluent Watsons. The story begins with her realization that her boyfriend has a mistress. Promising to have no more one-night stands if she gets out of this, she prays. One day, she accidentally hits Jason while driving, and they end up going to dinner. Fast forward to five months of dating, and Sabrina tells Jason of her new job offer in China opting for a long-distance relationship. Jason refuses and Sabrina walks away, but he ends up proposing to her that night, to which she accepts.
Now, it’s time for Jason and Sabrina’s family to meet. Jason’s downtown family has to meet Sabrina’s family in their upscale neighbourhood. But from there, all pretty much goes South. Snide and rude remarks from the get-go by Jason’s family who feel insecure by the Watson’s influence. With all the chaos happening and themes discussed, there’s still the subject of Jason’s family ritual – jumping the broom, and whether or not the bride is willing to uphold it.

I saw this film first in 2013 and it’s amazing to me how deeply your perspective changes when you see a film more than ten years later. A lot of the things you enjoyed and let slide; you just cannot bring yourself to anymore. But before getting into a few displeasures of mine in this film, I’ll talk about the things I enjoyed.

This film presented an incredibly beautiful cast. From Angela Bassett, who I have always loved and admired to Mike Epps and Meagan Good. I didn’t exactly enjoy the role played by Meagan in this film because it just seemed a tad repetitive, but her presence there is always welcome. Stunning back then in 2011 as she is now. I think that this is pretty much the only part of this film I enjoyed. I loved the cast to no end.

But that’s pretty much it. I was annoyed for most parts of this film because of the witchy mother-in-law. The fact that the groom let her rudeness and undue meanness towards his bride scale for far too long. The fact that everyone wanted to tell the bride how to run her own wedding. That everyone seemed to bring their own issues into the wedding week and project it on the couple? It all seemed rather unfair and irksome.

Then the subject of Black-related themes. It felt to me that the Directors wanted to touch on so many black-themed issues all at once. From jumping the broom to colorism, to teenage pregnancy, to family members who feel like it’s more their wedding than yours, and all other issues. But surprisingly, it didn’t delve into any of these issues. Simply mentioned them in passing. Bringing all of this to light but not a definite resolution to them seemed to defeat the purpose if at all there was any.

I hope I haven’t scared anyone from seeing this film. It’s rather beautiful and I hate that I’m nitpicking on things, but you’ll probably have the same thoughts anyway. Still, see this film if you can. Have a love-filled week ahead, everyone!

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