Jumping the Broom

Scene from Jumping the Broom movie (Google images)

JUMPING THE BROOM

Over-the-top is okay sometimes -- and “Jumping the Broom” is one of those times. The film has enough conflict, trauma and romance for three or four movies -- too much, really; and none of it is subtle.

Yet the movie works.

Despite some missteps toward the end, “Broom” is well acted, thoughtful and very funny; it certainly holds your attention throughout.

Titled for the African-American tradition of jumping over a broom to signify marriage (since legal weddings were rarely sanctioned in slave society), the tale keys on an upwardly mobile black woman who falls for a guy from the other side of the tracks.

On wedding weekend, the groom’s mother and her riff-raffish entourage arrive at the bride’s palatial estate in Martha’s Vineyard.

In a way that’s risky for a white writer to articulate, the families’ meeting foregrounds a long-standing conflict in black society -- one I first encountered in Ralph Ellison’s landmark 1952 novel “Invisible Man”: Should blacks be proud or ashamed of their cultural heritage -- the food, music, clothing, etc., for which they were once ridiculed and stereotyped?

In other words, is it okay for an African-American family to move up in the world and become like whites? More important, should they abandon such ethnic favorites as collard greens, sweet potato pie and Marvin Gaye?  Or have they already? (And if my listing these items seems marginally racist or offensive -- well then, you understand the problem.)

As a case in particular, take the aforementioned broom tradition:  Is this something to be celebrated proudly -- or rejected as shameful? The groom’s family celebrates; the bride’s rejects. And chaos ensues.

It comes to a head when his mother viciously sabotages the wedding -- and here is the movie’s big misstep. This sadistic act almost defies belief -- and the subsequent effort to get closure on the issue feels far too pat and brief. The film would probably be better off without this gut-wrenching plot device.

With at least a dozen important characters -- most involved in some type of romance with one of the others -- there’s plenty of emotion on hand already; and Mom’s move only clouds the movie’s other hot-button issues (bankruptcy, divorce, adultery, adoption, parents, alcohol and sexual abstinence -- to name just a few). In particular, when she becomes the “bad guy,” the film suddenly seems to take sides against her cultural views, and that’s reductionistic; I don’t think it’s what the writers intended.

Fortunately, the film is buoyed even through its rough spots by 15 or more first-rate performances: Angela Bassett, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Tasha Smith, Loretta Devine, rapper Romeo Miller -- it’s tough to pick favorites from the cast; there isn’t a single dud in the bunch.

Also noteworthy:  “Broom” joins a growing trend of films turned out by Christians -- 2010’s “Like Dandelion Dust” was another -- in which Christian characters don’t always do the right thing.

This kind of humility makes a saner approach than the rah-rah propaganda of some contemporary Christian art -- and it might throw a little water on the flames of our escalating culture wars.

It’s one of the few times this very busy comedy actually does turn down the heat. Three stars *** (out of four).
The film is rated PG-13 for sexuality and crude humor.