My Big Fat Greek Wedding

This was a very pleasant surprise. Frankly, I was avoiding it because I thought it was going to be too tacky for my taste. It turned out that I needed some of the Windex, the father of the bride uses for everything, to clear my eyes and enjoy the film.

Nia Vardalos has written from the heart this story of a crazy Greek family with all the stereotypes in it for us to savor and enjoy what has come out under the firm direction of Joel Zwick.

Not only is Ms. Vardalos talented as an actress, but she can write quite a story, star in her own tale, and bring together this cast of loonies and make us believe we are inside these folks' home.

Michael Constantine and Lanie Kazan are the parents of the bride and they preside this crazy household in Chicago. Nia Vardalos is the "ugly duckling" we see at the beginning of the film and she wins John Corbett's heart and disarms him completely. He got her family in the bargain and he's stuck in it for better of for worse. Andrea Martin is very effective as the pushy aunt.

All in all, it should be seen for the fun of it. This is a funny film, very well paced and acted.

Please pass the Windex!!

My Fiancé is Greek and I am not. This move hit the nail on the head! The whole time I was watching this movie I was thinking this is my life Oh my God this is my life. I think people who gave this move bad reviews just didn't get it, because, they are not around or live inside the world of a Greek family. There are so many similarities to my Fiancés family it's almost creepy. For a crasher course to our wedding I told my whole family to watch this movie before they came. After the wedding was all said and done I had so many people from my side of the family came up to me and tell me your RIGHT! It was just like my Big Fat Greek Wedding!!! Especially since we had almost 700 people at our wedding and all we did all night long is dance in circles!!! It was a lot of fun!

This was the best movie in a long time and no one knows how true this movie really is until they live through it.

Sincerely, AJH

*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

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.

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.