Jumping the Broom
Jumping the Broom is a 2011 American comedy film directed by Salim Akil and produced by Tracey E. Edmonds, Elizabeth Hunter, T.D. Jakes, Glendon Palmer, and Curtis Wallace.
The title of the film is derived from the Black American tradition of bride and groom jumping over a ceremonial broom after being married.
The film was shot in Blue Rocks, Nova Scotia, standing in for Martha's Vineyard, the setting for the film.TriStar Pictures distributed the film in the United States on May 6, 2011.
It was released on DVD and Blu-ray on August 9, 2011.
Plot
Sabrina Watson (Paula Patton) is the only child of the wealthy Watson family of her mother Claudine (Angela Bassett) and father Greg Watson (Brian Stokes Mitchell) who live in Martha's Vineyard. Sabrina starts the film having another affair with Bobby, a cheating stud. She asks God to help her again get out of this situation and she promises (again) not to have another one-night stand with anyone and only have sex with her future husband. One day, she accidentally hits Jason Taylor (Laz Alonso) when driving up quickly after putting on make-up and not seeing him run through. She gets out to offer her services and overreacts. Jason forgives her and takes up a night of dinner with her. Five months later, after going out, Sabrina tells Jason about her job offer in China and asks him to still be with her in a long-distance relationship but Jason declines. She walks off sad and soon hears a music group singing, and Jason comes back and asks her to marry him, which she accepts.
Jumping the broom
Jumping the broom is a phrase and custom relating to a wedding ceremony where the couple jumps over a broom. The custom is based on an 18th-century idiomatic expression for "sham marriage", "marriage of doubtful validity"; it was popularized in the context of the introduction of civil marriage in Britain with the Marriage Act 1836.
There have been suggestions that the expression may derive from an actual custom of jumping over a "broomstick" (where "broom" refers to the common broom rather than the household implement) associated with the Romani people of the United Kingdom. especially those in Wales.
The custom of a marrying couple literally jumping over a broom is now most widespread among African Americans, popularized in the 1970s by the novel and miniseries Roots but originating in the mid 19th century as a practice in antebellum slavery in the United States.
As an expression for "irregular marriage"
References to "broomstick marriages" emerged in England in the mid-to-late 18th century, always to describe a wedding ceremony of doubtful validity. The earliest use of the phrase is in the 1764 English edition of a French work: the French text, describing an elopement, refers to the runaway couple hastily making un mariage sur la croix de l'épée (literally ‘marriage on the cross of the sword’), an expression the English translator freely renders as ‘performed the marriage ceremony by leaping over a broomstick’.
