A big, fat great film out of nowhere
by Ben Malakoff, News Editor
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When the "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" bandwagon was gaining steam around mid-summer, my mother called to tell me it was worth a look. She also added another nugget.
"You know," she said, "you could replace 'Greek' with 'Jewish' and it would be the same thing."
Yes, I know mom. "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," might have well been titled "My Big Fat (insert any prideful ethnic group here) Wedding."
But the same could be said of several other things in the movie: Replace "Greek" with "Latino" and the result would have been the same. Replace Nia Vardalous with Jennifer Lopez and the result would have been the same. Replace Windex with Glass Plus -- you get the picture.
The premise is not overtly original -- ugly duckling pressured to find husband of same ethnicity, becomes swan and finds non-Greek vegan with bland parents. But what works so well is Vardalos' adaptation of Greek-American life into a love story.
We know at the beginning of the movie she will become a swan, and we know she will find someone with whom to have a big, fat, Greek wedding. What is quite enjoyable is watching it all unfold.
The premise for "Wedding" comes from a one-woman show performed by Vardalous about the pressures of being in a Greek family and finding a Greek mate. Rita Wilson, the wife of Tom Hanks and of Greek decent herself, saw the act and Hanks produced the film.
Vardalous is adept at playing Toula, the duckling, a part she has probably played since she was a little Greek girl pressured to grow up and marry a Greek boy to have Greek children.
Toula (Vardalous) undergoes a makeover that Joan Rivers would be envious of, to assist in her quest to find a husband and get out of her parent's overtly Greek house. She moves to the family travel agency rather than the her parent's Greek eatery and meets Ian, played by John Corbitt of HBO's "Sex and the City." Ian is the non-Greek vegan who falls for Toula and throws a wrench into Toula's father Gus' plans for little Greek grandchildren.
While understanding and accepting her own Greek heritage, Toula must convince her family (all 300 of them) to accept Ian.
Ian jumps through hoops such as an adult Greek baptism, meeting the family and, well, meeting the family. Finally, the family learns to welcome Ian just as Ian learns to welcome them and then there's a big, fat Greek wedding in there too.
The jokes are great, but the cream of the crop is, of course, the laughs at Greek life ranging from Toula's family's well (or ill) placed Greek flag to Toula's aunt's reply at learning Ian is a vegan ("I'll make lamb").
The movie, made for just $5 million, has slowly worked its way up to decent recognition, coming in second place at the box office last weekend behind the recently released, "Swimfan." Playing in few theaters at first, word of mouth has propelled success of "Wedding" and it will soon crack the $100 million mark, almost unheard of for an independent film.
If nothing, this movie will make people feel better about their awkward extended family. But it will make you chuckle at least once as well.
The ingredients are classic elements of which countless films have been the subjects.
The spice is the ethnic influence had in this movie which makes it worth watching.