One of my first questions midway into "Jumping the Broom" was: Why doesn't Meagan Good have a better career? She's drop-dead gorgeous and can play sympathetic, sarcastic and cold, all with ease. Heck, her performance in "Brick" alone should have guaranteed at least one meaty role. Alas, Good's most often relegated to portraying the best friend of a whiny protagonist — first in 2009's "The Unborn" and now second fiddle to Paula Patton in "Jumping the Broom."
As for Patton, who was excellent as an encouraging teacher in "Precious," she comes across as a spoiled brat — more of a Katherine Heigl than a Reese Witherspoon if we're talking rom-com heroines. As Sabrina — a lawyer who's finally met her ideal man but wants to marry him in the presence of her family before the couple relocates across the globe — she's not likably neurotic but neurotically unlikable. The only character more unlikable is Mrs. Taylor, Loretta Devine's sassy postal worker mother-in-law, taken out of Brooklyn and thrown into a Martha's Vineyard wedding weekend with Sabrina's wealthy family. Sure, Sabrina's mother (Angela Bassett, with biceps of steel and a steely expression to match) is a little cold, but the rest of the bride's family ranges from not exactly hostile to very friendly. Yet Mrs. Taylor is just plain mean. There's no other word for it.
Here's the conundrum of "Jumping the Broom": It appears that each of the screenwriters took one-half of the movie, wrote it and slapped the pages together without convening to edit together a whole. The first half is broad comedy, concentrating on fish-out-of-water stereotypes and wacky hijinks by the bumbling event planner (Julie Bowen, adorable and funny as always).
The second half, however, has much more depth and heart, plunging into faulty dynamics and family secrets on both sides. The ending is sitcom-predictable, but so what? It's a romantic comedy. Part of the appeal is knowing how the story ends. And by then, Sabrina is a sympathetic character who's earned her happiness. Why couldn't that have happened earlier?