CriticSociety- film reviews

Review

My Big Fat Greek Wedding

Director

Joel Zwick

Year

2002

Rating

Reviewed by

José Ruiloba a.k.a. Morris

Review date

Tuesday, December 31, 2002

So much fuss has been made of this movie I couldn’t wait to see it. I finally did and found the experience to be quite disappointing. Not that I was expecting much, but people are actually talking of this movie as award-worthy, and, pardon the expression, that’s just stupid. The notion of a movie making money and then suddenly being the object of this much praise sickens me. Why didn’t people talk this highly of the movie when it first opened? I guess that’s Hollywood after all, but I’m not as bitter as I sound. Keep reading.

Toula (Nia Vardalos) is sick of her Greek heritage and how she’s only expected to marry a Greek man and feed him for the rest of her life. She is quite an unhappy girl until she goes to college and her vision expands. Suddenly she meets a charming non-Greek (John Corbett) with whom she gets engaged. Of course her family doesn’t like the idea so much, especially her father (Michael Constantine), but with the help of her mother (Lainie Kazan) she starts to get off with it. Now there’s a wedding to plan, and a family to invite as well.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding is a funny movie all right. I can’t deny the fact that I laughed out loud more than once. It’s a charming movie with a lot of good jokes thrown in there for good measure. The problem is that the movie feels like an extended sitcom. There’s jokes and jokes and jokes and not a single moment rings true. The attempt to try and stick some quiet and touching scenes in there proves ridiculous, since the dialogue is more laughable than intelligent.

There’s also the fact that while watching the movie I couldn’t stop thinking of Fools Rush In, a romantic comedy that tackled the same territory except with a Mexican girl played by Salma Hayek having to marry an American lad played by Matthew Perry. That movie was a lot better because it rang true and it was also really funny at the same time. But I hate comparing, so I won’t delve much into this aspect. The truth is My Big Fat Greek Wedding is simply not a very good movie on its own.

The only interesting part I could find amongst the whole thing was the way Greek people live, think and behave. Of course here it’s all taken to the extreme for comedy’s sake, but it gives you a pretty good idea of their culture.

The performances are mostly ok. Nia Vardalos proves to be a charismatic lead without the usual characteristics of a Hollywood beauty. For that I applaud her, although her performance does get a little monotonous at times. She would be great in her own sitcom. Lainie Kazan is wonderful, but it is Michael Constantine, as Toula’s Windex-obsessed father, that easily steals the movie. I also enjoyed Andrea Martin as aunt Voula.

Overall it is an enjoyable, yet ineffective movie.

“In the end, we’re all fruit.”

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