My Big Fat Greek Wedding

Movie Title: My Big Fat Greek Wedding
Official Website (it might still work): My Big Fat Greek Wedding
Rating (out of 10): 9
Reviewed By: Michael Stevens
Buy the: Video/DVD \| Soundtrack
The Review:

Stop the presses and hold the phone! The 22^nd Century already has the new wonder drug of the century, Windex. If you haven't seen My Big Fat Greek Wedding, then you might be wondering what the Hell am I talking about, and I'll get to that in a minute. If you have seen the film, then what the Hell are you doing reading this? Now back to our story.

The film starts with young Toula Portokalos (Nia Vardalos, Meet Prince Charming) despising her Greek family for all the strange things they do that prevent her from becoming completely assimilated into the larger American culture (therefore she will not standout). We learn from the opening that Greek women have three goals: marry a Greek boy, make lots of Greek children, and cook lots of food to feed all the Greeks. Now skip ahead a decade and Toula has not done any of these three things, much to the disappointment of her father Gus (Michael Constantine, Thinner) who is a big Greek supporter (his house is modeled after the Parthenon and has a giant Greek flag painted on the garage door). Gus also has a fascination with Windex, which he feels can cure just about any ailment by simply spraying some on the affected area. Back to Toula, who works for dad at the family's Greek restaurant, who wants to go to college and learn about computers to help modernize the family. Daddy doesn't think women should get educated, but mom (Lainie Kazan) makes dad let her go anyway. This is where the rather plain Toula comes out of her cocoon and becomes the more assured and attractive Toula that can attract a man. And she does in the form of high school teacher Ian Miller (John Corbett, Serendipity), who is not Greek, but falls deeply in love with Toula. Toula also fall madly in love with Ian, but resists at first for fear of the family's outrage, and for fear that Ian will no longer want her after he meets her family. Oh the agony and horror of introducing one's boyfriend or girlfriend to your family. Will it all work out, or will Ian head for the hills with his very White-Anglo-Saxon-Conservative-American parents that are used to chain stores and bunt cakes? Only you can decide! Actually I am lying, you can't decide, but only you can make the conscious decision to see this film. Let us move on now.

Other folks in the film are Andrea Martin (Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius), Joey Fatone, Louis Mandylor, Gia Carides, and Fiona Reid and Bruce Gray as Ian’s parents.

Director Joel Zwick does a superb job of taking us inside a Greek-American household, though it really could be any American ethnic household. The real point though is not this glimpse of family life, but to show how everyone has issues with their family, how we deal with those issues, and how love can conquer all. Zwick uses Nia Vardalos’ screenplay well to mix all of these elements with great humor to create a very memorable film that has had surprising staying power at the box office. And in the end I give My Big Fat Greek Wedding nine couches out of ten.