If you have ever been embarrassed by your big loud family then you will certainly relate to Toula (played by Nia Vardalos) the narrator and main character in My Big Fat Greek Wedding. After all her suburban home is modeled after the Parthenon and her father (played by Michael Constantine) believes a squirt of Windex can cure anything–including bursitis–and that every word in the English language derives from a Greek root. At 30 Toula is still living at home and kowtowing to her strict father–who believes that every Greek woman’s ambition should be to marry a Greek man have Greek children and feed everyone until she dies. Suffice it to say he is less than happy when Toula becomes engaged to Ian (played by John Corbett)–a non-Greek. What ensues is a hilarious tale of what happens when two families–one loud Greek Orthodox the other conservative Episcopalian–must reconcile their differences for the sake of their children’s happiness. Vardalos‘ narration of the events that are occurring–and how she feels about them–helps draw the viewer into Toula’s world.
Vardalos is great as Toula and presents her character’s traits and peculiarities fittingly well like her low self-esteem and the way she slouches. More importantly Vardalos made Toula’s character believable. When Toula begins taking classes at a local college her confidence improves she puts on a little makeup combs her hair and voila! She’s transformed into a beautiful person oozing happiness. It’s quite charming. Corbett is well cast as the sweet and accepting fiancé but he comes across as a little bland. That really dated haircut certainly doesn’t win him any points either. Constantine as Toula’s strict father is chauvinistic and thick-headed but he plays his cards just right so you can never really hate the character straight out even though he treats his wife and kids like a Neanderthal would. As Aunt Voula Andrea Martin is by far the most hilarious of the bunch and she delivers each line with zany conviction. For all you ‘N Sync fans Joey Fatone has a small role as Toula’s cousin and has maybe three lines in the film.
My Big Fat Greek Wedding is based on comedy writer Vardalos‘ one-woman show. Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson saw the show and apparently liked it so much they decided to produce it through their Playtone studio. Directed by Joel Zwick the film is not the first to deal with big weddings and what happens when too many family members get involved. Ang Lee did it better with the 1993 romantic comedy The Wedding Banquet about a gay Taiwanese-American man who marries a young Chinese woman to satisfy his parents as did Mira Nair with last year’s Monsoon Wedding about an arranged Indian marriage. But Zwick who has directed a slew of TV shows from Happy Days to The Wayans Brothers keeps things fresh and funny despite the tired storyline. Set in Chicago but filmed in Toronto the film feels authentic especially the scenes in the family’s diner Dancing Zorbas their house and their neighborhood. But the movie could have done without the cartoonish old-world granny with anti-Turkish sentiment.
