Jumping the Broom

STARRING Paula Patton, Angela Bassett
DIRECTED BY Salim Akil

Two headstrong African-American families — one upper-crust, the other working-class — collide at a Martha’s Vineyard wedding in the second producing effort from popular pastor T.D. Jakes (the first was 2009’s Taraji P. Henson starrer Not Easily Broken). ”It’s a really open-minded faith movie,” says Paula Patton (Precious), who plays the cultured bride (the groom is Avatar‘s Laz Alonzo). ”You don’t feel hit over the head with it.” While the couple’s battling mothers, Angela Bassett (hers) and Loretta Devine (his), provide the film’s gravitas, many of Jumping the Broom‘s laughs come from Modern Family costar Julie Bowen’s silly turn as a racially clueless wedding planner. ”She killed it,” says Patton. ”We were allowed to improv, and she just went nuts. We’d all have to hold our mouths until they yelled ‘Cut.”’ — Dave Karger