Oh Daddy
By Miranda Inganni
Directed by Rick Famuyiwa, in this wedding flick, Lucia (America Ferrera) and Marcus (Lance Gross) form a happily engaged couple living together in New York. All is well until they return to Los Angeles and inform their domineering fathers of their upcoming nuptials.
Cutting to Los Angeles where their families reside, an owner of a towing/car restoration company, Miguel Ramirez (Carlos Mencia), rides the streets of downtown Los Angeles doing his job. As he’s hooking up a vintage Aston Martin for illegal parking, the car’s owner, Brad Boyd (Forest Whitaker), appears. Unbeknown to either party, these are the two dads. Each man is headstrong, stubborn, racist and petty, setting up the tune they will sing throughout the majority of the movie.
Later that night, Lucia and Marcus gather the families at a Los Angeles restaurant to make their announcement, and the two dads meet, again, in a Los Angeles where strangers can meet twice in a day. Fortunately the women – especially Lucia’s mom, Sonia (Diana Maria Riva), and Brad’s lawyer and confidant, Angela (Regina King) – manage to keep the men in check. Unfortunately for Lucia and Marcus, Sonia seems to be planning her own ideal wedding, and it is not the one the non-confrontational Lucia wants. Conversely Brad simply doesn’t want the son he raised single handedly to make the same marital mistake Brad made.
With extra characters in tow, each demanding and then compromising his or her prejudices, desires and dreams, the 103-film moves along in formulaic mode, complete with Viagra jokes, a horny goat and drunken debauchery before mutual understanding and appreciation take the characters to their harmonious conclusion.
While there are a few strong actors in this film, notable Whitaker, Ferrera and King, it’s not the young Lucia and Marcus who have the best on-screen chemistry. Oddly enough, that distinction falls to Mencia and Whitaker.
