Rated PG for sensuality and language
Starring: Nia Vardalos, John Corbett, Michael Constatine, Lainie Kazan, and Joey Fatone
Writer: Nia Vardalos
Director: Joel Zwick

Reviewed by Peter Veugelaers Ó 2002:
- Better than a cheese royale: buy one while its hot

"My Big Fat Greek Wedding" has raked in more money in the States than any other independent film ever, and as of this writing is approaching the $200 million mark. Weddings in movies sometimes have an uncanny touch. Another movie that had weddings as their central parameter was Four Weddings and A Funeral, which went onto box office glory and Oscar nods.

My impression is that "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" will get a smidgen of major Oscar nominations, as well as a nod for its memorable Greek inspired score, not because it’s a great film, but because it has that aura around it: it has screened for 30 weeks, a good portion of that in the box office top ten, so it has a durability that is rare for an independent feature; it is also produced by Hollywood hotshot Tom Hanks and wife Rita Wilson, who brought the idea from obscurity to a movie success story. It’s the film that is the "surprise" nomination in the Best Picture category, like Chocolat and In the Bedroom from the previous two years.

This is a fluffy comedy with a marshmallow heart, but has pertinent themes of close inter-generational relationships affected by modern life and individual liberty. Central to this is Toula: she is your average looking, spectacled, out-of-place single thirty-year-old. To add to her torments she is from a Greek family. Her father, Gus, and mother, Maria, own a Greek restaurant and she has inherited the family tradition of working there. Another no compromise ritual of the Portokalos family is that sons and daughters must get married and have babies.

Dissatisfied with her lot, Toula transforms herself from toeing the family line and living under the pressure to get married, to having a make over and taking computer classes where she can help out a close relative’s failing travel agency and which gets her father’s approval after a little bit of coaxing.

Then, she meets Ian Miller, a man from the other side of the tracks: non-religious, unlike Toula’s family, an only child (Toula has 14 first cousins), and a teacher at a High School. Of course, they fall in love, and when Toula’s father finds out she is romancing a non-Greek, the response is predictable. He is a Greek thoroughbred: He says at one stage, "there are two people in this world; Greeks and those who want to be Greek".

The makers want to relay a message with some urgency of being independent while retaining the significance of where you have come from. This is done without subtlety. There are several sentimental moments that underline what has already been implied, and when Toula’s brother explains his change of heart to foiling the Portokalos way, the audience gets a sermon as well. It is plain what is happening; there is no need to spell it out.

This is a formulaic comedy, with several laugh-out-loud moments, including endearing, likeable characters. However, Toula’s parents, Gus and Maria, are more like puppets than characters, living out the Greek stereotypes, with Gus uttering a likeable but implausible running gag.

"My Big Fat Greek Wedding" is jelly – nothing substantial, but soft; life affirming but never really develops ideas. It brushes over conflicts swiftly, but it wants to be a positive reflection of family life, to uplift and affirm life, rather than explore the details and ramifications of Toula’s actions, which may have harsher penalties in a more unforgiving family.

Like when Toula and Ian have sexual relations (this is implied rather than shown). The consequences of doing this may spell disaster for some brought up in similar families, and although her parents may not have known about it, the action never reverberates any kind of negative. One scene, though, is genuinely affecting and moving where the disillusioned Toula, in intimate close-up, anguishes over her father’s dismissal of her suggestion to improve the family business, while mother comforts.

Nia Vardalos wrote the screenplay, and starred as Toula. Her writing is predictable and not exceptional, but warm; her performance is more endearing. With John Corbett as her love interest they make an attractive and convincing couple – Vardalos is especially watchable - in an essentially light romantic comedy that does not trek more thoughtfully into territory it sketches over.