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My Big Fat Greek Wedding
4/19/02 - PG - 96m
Nia Vardalos
John Corbett
Michael Constantine
Director: Joel Zwick
JEF
I had passed on wanting to see this movie many times before to see another
movie in the theatre. But, it's getting great word of mouth buzz and has
been in the theatres now for an incredible 26 weeks! So, My curiosity
got the better of me, I wanted to find out why.
It starts with a Tula (Fotoula Portokalos, played by Nia Vardalos), a
"frumpy" looking middle aged woman who is working in her family's
Greek Restaraunt. We are then shown this Greek-American culture through
the many family members of her family. Her Father is the owner of the
restaruant, and is concerned her daughter is getting old, and her time
for finding the "right" husband, (meaning Greek husband) is
quickly running out.
We're then shown some of the background on why Tula seems so unhappy with
her Greek heritage. She just wanted to fit in with the american lifestyle.
Tula decides to go to college to start a better life, and to try and get
out of her mundane life of a hostess in her fathers restaraunt. After
some doing, She goes to college, and this brings her out of her shell,
and she goes through a transformation.
Then she meets Ian Miller (John Corbett, from TV's "Northern Exposure",
which was one of my favorites, to HBO's "Sex in the City").
Ian is a non-greek English Teacher. They fall in love, and the rest of
the movie is about the problems of introducing Ian into her families strong
Greek culture.
There were many cute and funny moments in the movie. From the strange
aunt Voula (played by Andrea Martin, best known for her comedy on "SCTV"),
to the practical joking brother, to the run away grandmother. The Characters
are deep and we start to feel a part of the family. If you come from a
large family I think you'll relate to some of the story better than someone
who comes from a small family.
Overall this was a cute, funny, entertaining movie, about the Greek culture,
and weddings but just not my style.
Now, I had a small thing nagging at the back of my mind through-out this
movie... It was a movie about racism. The Greek family, surrounded itself
with all things Greek. Many due to the father. This situation got many
laughs from the crowd, but if you switched the race of the Greek family,
to a caucasion family, it would have caused an outrage. I guess since
it was a Greek movie making fun of itself, it's deemed "okay",
but I'd be interested to know how other "Greek-americans" have
reacted to this movie. I believe this was resolved in the movie, and after
all it was about Tula's attempts to change her fathers racist ways, and
to introduce a foreigner into their family, so it was still a positive
movie, but it just had that "something" that was slightly disturbing
to me.
An interesting Side note I saw in the credits... it was co-produced by
Tom Hanks.
Jef