The Wedding (1998) (TV)

User Rating:

5.3/10   

Director:

Charles Burnett

Writers (WGA):

Dorothy West (novel)
Lisa Jones (teleplay)

Release Date:

22 February 1998 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

One walk will determine her destiny.

Plot Keywords:

Black Woman White Male | Adultery | 1950s | Class Differences | Wedding

Awards:

4 nominations

Cast

Halle Berry	...	Shelby Coles
Eric Thal	...	Meade Howell
Lynn Whitfield	...	Corinne Coles
Carl Lumbly	...	Lute McNeil
Michael Warren	...	Clark Coles
Marianne Jean-Baptiste	...	Ellen Coles
Shirley Knight	...	Gram (Miss Caroline)
Cynda Williams	...	Liz Odis
Charlayne Woodard
Richard Brooks	...	Lincoln Odis
Gabriel Casseus	...	Hannibal
Patricia Clarkson	...	Della McNeil
Ethel Ayler	...	Eunice
Kelsey Walke	...	Tina McNeil
Peter Francis James	...	Isaac Coles

Also Known As:

Oprah Winfrey Presents: The Wedding

Runtime:

Spain:180 min | UK:135 min (edited version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

UK:PG | Spain:13

Filming Locations:

Southport, North Carolina, USA

Company:

Hamdon Entertainment

Quotes:

Corinne Coles: I know it was harsh when I spoke of you being a stain on your in-laws' sheets. It's because I was a stain on my mother's.

Better miss this saga, despite lovely Halle Berry

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marry a perfectly white jazz musician, or whether she should or mustn't marry a an honestly black man, is just so out of date, it does not rub off.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.