Casamento Grego

I have seen many movies in the past year, some have been wonderful and some have been downright terrible. My Big Fat Greek Wedding has to be one of the best written and best acted comedies I think I have seen in a long time. While the concept of making a movie about weddings is not unique, I believe that those of us who either have gone through planning a wedding or have experiences with family having too much influence in our lives will relate to this movie better than other wedding movies.

This movie is about an ordinary rather plain looking thirty something unmarried woman who comes from a large extended Greek family. All Greek women are expected to go to Greek school, find a good Greek man, marry him and have lots of Greek babies according to the narrator who is also the main character in the movie. This simple premise is what sets us off in almost two hours of raucous humor centered around planning a wedding where a couple coming from completely different backgrounds has to deal with all the external pressures that happen when two people decide to go down the aisle together.

This movie has several very heartwarming and somewhat emotional scenes in it so don't expect it is just a funny movie. Acting in this movie on all characters was very well done and very believable. I thought however that the roles of the Grooms Mother and Father were rather flat and two dimensional. This movie reminded me quite a bit of Father of the Bride starring Steve Martin, except in this case, the writers for Monty Python obtained the script for final treatment. While the writers for Monty Python did not actually write this movie but was instead written by the leading lady, there were some moments where it appeared that the humor was drawn right out of a book of British comedy. All in all I felt that the whole movie had a British feel to it.

This movie will delight you and leave you with a smile on your face. While the audience in the theater was more of an adult composition, I do not remember any nudity or adult language in the entire picture which means this movie is one that the whole family can see together. I would wholeheartedly recommend this movie to anyone who would like a good laugh.

An extremely good little film that shows that smart ideas, good writing, solid direction, likeable characters and an engrossing story will always win out in the end. Nia Vardalos stars as a Greek woman who just seems a bit out-of-place in her not always normal life. She is shy, reserved and ashamed of her heritage. Some makeup, a few college classes, stylish clothes and a travel agency job away from her father's restaurant are just the tickets to help her come out of her shell. Soon high school teacher John Corbett is entranced by her and they start a sweet love affair. Naturally she keeps the secret from her parents (Michael Constantine and Lainie Kazan) and the sparks fly when they eventually find out. They want their daughter to marry a Greek man and have lots of children, but Vardalos has other plans for her life. Corbett's love knows no bounds though as he makes it clear that she is the one he really wants. "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" happened due to good timing and lots of luck. Vardalos was struggling when Tom Hanks' wife (Rita Wilson) went to see the small play that the film is based upon. Wilson happened to see an advertisement for the show in the newspaper one day (the only day Vardalos could afford to run an ad) and the rest as they say is history. The film cost very little to make and usually second-rate director Joel Zwick ended up running the show. Vardalos' screenplay (Oscar-nominated) was the catalyst that put the film on the map and kept it there permanently. Most all the extras are real family members of Vardalos and Ian Gomez (who plays Corbett's best friend) is actually her husband in real life. Easily one of the most successful films of all time financially speaking (based upon the bargain basement cost and the astronomical showing at the box office), "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" is a wholesome film that the whole family can enjoy. It is another one of those rare films that feel like it was made during Hollywood's Golden Age of the 1940s. Not quite excellent, but dangerously close. 4.5 out of 5 stars.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding is a very simple, funny romance story that would probably be most appreciated by female audiences.

Nia Vardalos (the film's writer and star) is Toula Portokalos, a quiet young woman from a zany Greek family. As she explains in the great flashback introduction, all her life she has been brought up to be strictly Greek. But, the same upbringing also contains some traditional absuridites that she can't understand, although her parent's wish that she would adhere to. Toula's upbringing has only allowed her to look forward to one thing at this point in her life: get married to a nice Greek boy and have lots of babies.

This is not something Toula wants to here, and eventually, she gains the courage to break out of her introverted shield and gradually change herself into a bold, lovely woman. She stops working at her family's resturaunts and starts taking computer classes at the local college, which lead her not only to a better appreciation for herself, but leads to a job at her aunt's travel agency where she meets Ian Miller (Jon Corbet), and that is where our story begins.

Toula and Ian are in love, really very much so. But, this troubles Toula's mother and father, with her father (Michael Constantine) being more strict in traditional Greek upbringing than her mother (Lanie Kazan), when Ian proposes to Toula. For Toula's father, it is bad enough that she quit the family business to go to school and everything. But it is simply out of the question for him that she marry a non-Greek. So, Toula is torn between the two. This is a movie very much in the spirit of films like Bend it Like Beckham and somewhat like the Joy Luck Club in addressing roles of tradition in future generations of immigrants and the possibility and reason for preservation of such traditions.

Of course the film is a very simple movie, a simple love story, but a funny one nonetheless. We see the contrast between Toula's Greek upbringing, and Ian's very quiet, conservative family. Everyone was fantastic in this film, especially Lainie Kazan as Toula's mom, Michael Constantine as her father, and the wonderfully hilarious Andrea Martin as Toula's Aunt Voula.

I don't know the reason for so many negative reviews for this movie. I would say it was probably the best movie I saw in 2002, and one that I have seen many times since just because it a lovely little (and funny) story about a girl in love.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding makes up for what it lacks in plot with a cast of amusing, lovable characters. Like any large extended family the Portokolos family is a collection of oddball, zany characters. Toula's father Gus can find the Greek root of any word, and believes windex to be a wondrous cure to any ailment. Toula's mother says "the man may be the head of the household, but the woman is the neck, she can turn the head whichever way she wants". And throughout the movie we see matriarchal power in action as she and Aunt Voula subtly manipulate Gus, the father. Toula's Cousin Nikki with her provocative fashion sense and brother Nick with his quiet passion for art, fill out the Portokolos personality tree.

In contrast the Millers are a subdued, small family. Ian has only two cousins. When Toula invites the Millers over for a quiet dinner to meet her parents they are in for quite a shock. The dynamics between the overwhelmingly extroverted Portokolos family and the reserved parents of the groom provide some amusing moments.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding had potential to be an exceptional film. It was hindered by a far too contrived romance and a particularly unconvincing performance by John Corbett as Ian Miller. His character was so lacking in personality, so bland, especially in contrast to the Portokolos family members. Plus the robotic delivery of his declarations of love were unbelievable. His character seemed an afterthought. Had Ian Miller been better acted, and developed as well as all of the supporting characters, the film would have been great. However, it is still an above average romantic comedy, providing many laughs and feel good moments.

*Nice romantic-comedy about a Greek-American girl which has to fight against her family's strict traditions in order to marry a non-Greek boy. I think that, for the Greek people, this movie must be full of topics and stereotypes, but for the ones who don't know about Greek ways of life is pretty funny. There are all kind of weird characters (the grandma!!!), and the starring actress makes an outstanding job showing us the metamorphosis of that timid girl to a liberated one. Nice dialogs, nice rhythm... Just a nice entertainment for a Saturday afternoon.

*My Rate 6/10