Genre ComedyRating PG3 1/2 out of 5 stars
Despite an April release, the family comedy, “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” avoided fading into independent film oblivion. In fact, just the opposite occurred.
The film has grown legs and taken in close to a hundred million dollars. Not bad for a movie made on a budget of only five million dollars.
Fotoula Portokalos (Nia Vardalos) is a frumpy, single, 30-year-old Greek woman going through a crisis. Fotoula’s tightly knit family is desperate to get her married.
But she doesn’t want to follow the tradition of all the other women in her family: marry a Greek man, have Greek babies and cook Greek food for them until they die. (Notice a pattern?)
As soon as Fotoula believes that life has little or nothing to offer, she meets Ian Miller (John Corbett), and things immediately change for the better.
She abandons her frumpy clothes and thick glasses in favor of contacts and a better wardrobe. The love struck pair start dating and are engaged soon after.
However, sparks fly when Fotoula’s family discovers that she’s marrying a non-Greek man.
The plot, done a thousand times before, follows in the footsteps of “Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner?” and “Meet the Parents.”
With a cliched story, the film maintains a certain charm and appeal that audiences are sure to find delightfully entertaining.
Fotoula’s family is full of so much personality and so many quirks that it’s impossible not to laugh.
Gus, her father, is convinced that Windex can cure everything including poison ivy, psoriasis and minor burns.
Fotoula’s absent-minded grandmother often escapes the house and wanders onto the neighbor’s front lawns yelling in Greek.
And Joey Fatone, of *NSYNC fame, appears as one of Fotoula’s twenty-seven cousins. He blends in nicely with the rest of the family and should keep audiences’ minds away from his boy band day job.
Even the house, modeled after the Parthanon, is quite a sight to see.
Vardalos based the screenplay for “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” on her one-act play dealing with the same subject matter. This lends some much needed realism and credibility to a story that’s been done before. None of that matters.
Though, for anybody looking for a cute, not-so-deep movie to enjoy. “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” provides that in spades.
