Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom

"Noah's Arc", the Logo network's sassy, fizzy gay comedic soap about an African-American writer, his steady boyfriend and assorted friends and ex-paramours, wasn't exactly trend-setting or groundbreaking...it had just enough bitchy banter and stolen kisses for the two seasons it ran. Expanded to feature-length, the romantic ups-and-downs of these mercurial characters becomes wearing long before the final celebration. Flashy, flitting Noah (Darryl Stephens) is about to marry dimply, masculine Wade (Jensen Atwood) at Wade's family's vacation home in Martha's Vineyard, but the wedding weekend is disrupted when the invited guests find themselves mired in romantic indecision and petty jealousies. A handful of the questions raised about relationships (trust, commitment, and honesty to one's own self as well as to his partner) transcend the gay scenario; the writing is often funny and often biting. However, the answers we get are usually in the form of a retort which skirts the issue, followed by a friendly hug, a chaste kiss, or a klutzy pratfall. The jubilation felt at the end is awfully sweet, though it too seems more like frosting than actual cake. ** from ****