Just Married

Just Married


Yes, I know. I should probably never have rented it. But as far as a simple movie with some easy laughs go..it's not so bad. And the one black character in it isn't nearly as offensive as the one black character in Two Weeks Notice.

There are two noticeable minorities in JM. One is Juan, an Asian house manager who lives and works at Brittney Murphy's parents. The other is Ashton Kutcher's coworker.

Juan is a bit of a caricature and really dances all over the offensive line. I think the sting of his Asian stereotype is mitigated by the fact that he has very few lines. So few in fact that by the time you think "holy crap! did they just have that guy say that like that?!" he's off screen and Murphey is getting hit in the head with something.

Kutcher's coworker, played by Alex Thomas, is great. He is an example of exaclty what a character who is a minority needs to be. A guy. Who happens to be a minority. And that's it. He doesn't have some crazy accent. He doesn't talk about 'the man.' He doesn't use reflexive, self loathing eptithets. He dosen't, as far as we know in this story, hate women, have too much sex with them, crave more sex with them, cheat on them. He works hard, dresses well and is tough but fair with Kutcher when he starts screwing up on the job.

Too often even small parts like this are overplayed so that racial stereotpyes are the source of the humor. Or at least a major part of the humor. Instead of letting the humor come from the conflict between characters or in the story itself.