My Big Fat Greek Wedding (Nia Vardalos, John Corbett) 1/2
When it comes to romantic comedies, it's important to seek out the good ones whenever you can. The reason is obvious: no genre is more saturated in today's movie market than those flicks which are supposedly geared at couples. I take one look around inside the local cinemas and it's clear that the movies are still the number one place where couples go on dates. So, like I say, Hollywood pumps out as many Julia-Aniston-Diaz-Perry-Bullock-Grant-Cusack vehicles as they can because they're relatively inexpensive to produce and they know that people will go see them no matter what. This is why sometimes you've gotta find something a little different. Something with a little bit of flavour. That's where My Big Fat Greek Wedding comes in. It's certainly not a film that will change your life, but you are likely to be more entertained with this relatively independent project than with a lot of the more mainstream romantic comedies.
Nia Vardalos (who also wrote the screenplay) plays Toula Portokalos, a 30-year old Greek woman who has yet to find her true love. The first act of the film is unquestionably the clunkiest, because Toula is presented as yet another ugly duckling type. The plot offers absolutely no explanation for her decision to consciously look unattractive, particularly when her entire family is frantic to find her a suitable Greek husband. However, her transformation into a beautiful woman occurs early in the picture, so this far-too-familiar angle isn't hammered too harshly.
Toula eventually goes into the tourism industry and meets and falls in love with Ian Miller (John Corbett, resembling Edward Burns and perhaps even a shade of John Travolta). Ian isn't Greek, so the inevitable marriage proposal is a difficult pill for Toula's parents (Michael Constantine and Lainie Kazan) to swallow. And yet, because she and Ian are so obviously in love, they are willing to make sacrifices to make their life together a success; they're committed to indulge the (often ludicrous) demands their families place on them in order to be together.
The movie opens with the general assumption that your typical viewer will know only a few basic facts about Greek culture. As it progresses, more traditions and staples present themselves, so that by the end we are brought into the customs and receive a distinct sense of familiarity. Most of the humour works because the tone is turned inward -- it doesn't come off as mocking, but rather takes an amusing look at cultural differences. On the flip side, however, one gag featuring a bottle of Windex gets run through the joke factory about 8 times, which is about 6 times too much.
My Big Fat Greek Wedding has a lot of funny moments in part because many of the quirky supporting cast (including Andrea Martin, Louis Mandylor and Joey Fatone as protective relatives) gives it his or her all when it's their turn to shine. Its shortcomings may be visible from time to time, but then, overlooking superficial flaws seems to be one of the film's main themes.
