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My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002)
Reviewed on 2012 January 19
Sweet, at times a little predictable but still funny, comedy about a woman falling for the last man her family would have imagined.
Toula Portokalos (Nia Vardalos) is resigned to a humdrum life, working in her father’s restaurant in Chicago and spending her free time swarmed by overwhelming but loving Greek-American family. Daddy Gus (Michael Constantine) is anxious for his beloved Toula to marry someday, provided he’s a nice Greek guy. Tula gets half the battle: she meets a very nice English teacher named Ian Miller (John Corbett). John is decent, kind, crazy about Toula, and as a bonus is easy to look at. The hurdle here is that he’s probably got Mayflower roots.
Love has little use for genealogy, and Tula’s Mr. Right just doesn’t happen to be Greek. Toula couldn’t care less. Ian loves her too, and now comes the really hard part. She has to get her family to accept him, and hope that her huge, noisy, pushy, but warm family doesn’t scare him or his quiet parents off.
I got a big kick out of the movie, and as one who eloped, I use it as exhibit A when people ask why Mr. Shukti and I didn’t have a huge wedding. Nia was very funny as the wry Toula, and I love the bit where she explains just what Ian is letting himself in for if they’re going to make this work. I can see where it’s not a guy’s cup of tea, but it’s a good woman’s movie (it transcends chick flick). The slapsticky parts are actually funny, and the acting is laid on just thick enough to be entertaining, not too much.
Three chocolate morsels.
— Shukti
