Description
Toula is 30. And unmarried. Which means as a nice Greek girl — she’s a failure. All her cousins did the right thing — married Greek boys and made Greek babies. So everyone worries: what will become of Toula? Then one day she sees the ultimate unattainable guy and realizes the only way her life will get better is if he gets away from her big, fat Greek family. Toula escapes from the family restaurant. She exchanges her seating hostess jacket for a college diploma, convinces her aunt to give her a new job, and trades in her coke-bottle glasses for contact lenses, just in time for “him” to walk back into her life. Ian Miller is tall, handsome but defnitely not Greek. Their courtship is an Olympian culture clash. Can Ian handle Toula, her parents, her aunts, uncles, cousins and several centuries of Greek heritage? Will Toula discover the love she’s been missing right in the heart of her big, fat family? One thing is for sure, for better or worse, for richer or poorer, with Ian’s proposal Toula is headed for her big, fat Greek wedding.
DVD Features:
Audio Commentary
Biographies
Scene Access
Amazon.com
It’s not surprising that My Big Fat Greek Wedding grew more popular over the course of its theatrical release (whereas most blockbusters open big and then drop precipitously)–not only does it have believable situations and engaging characters, but these characters (particularly our romantic heroine, Toula, played by writer and performer Nia Vardalos) look like actual human beings instead of plastic movie stars. The result is the very accessible tale of Greek-American Toula (whose family sees her as over the hill at 30), who falls for a WASPy guy named Ian (John Corbett) and then has to endure the outrage, doubt, and ultimate acceptance of her deeply ethnically centered family. The actors invest their wildly stereotypical portrayals with sincerity and compassion, giving the movie an honest warmth instead of Hollywood schmaltz. But My Big Fat Greek Wedding ultimately succeeds because of Vardalos; her intelligent, down-to-earth presence and charm carry the film. –Bret Fetzer
BUY NOW: My Big Fat Greek Wedding
Search terms:
- my big fat greek wedding cultural assumption
- cultural assumptions and My Big Fat Greek Wedding
- razor mx500 on cnn
I love it when a sleeper of a movie like this one soars to prominence based on word-of-mouth. This little gem deserves every kudo it gets, and then some.
Refreshingly normal-looking Nia Vardalos basically plays herself in a script she wrote from memories of her own Greek-American upbringing. Maybe that is why the movie comes across as so real and so heartwarming. At any rate, Vardalos plays Toula, a 30-year-old spinster (in her traditional father’s eyes) who helps run the family’s restaurant, the Dancing Zorba. Hidden behind thick glasses, baggy sweaters and too much hair, Toula is miserable. She loves her family, but she wants to find her own niche in the world–without giving Papa a heart attack.
After much high emotion, Toula improves her looks, goes back to school, snags a job in her aunt’s travel agency (after all, reasons Papa, it’s still family) and meets the man of her dreams (gorgeous John Corbett, “Aidan” from “Sex and the City”). Everything should be happy, no? NO! Ian (the boyfriend) is NOT GREEK, and Papa is beside himself.
This movie is simply a delight, from the opening credits to the very end. It is unpretentious, warm, loving, and happy. And on top of all that, it’s truly well-acted and very, very funny. I recommend it highly.
It is a rare gem of a movie when people can poke fun at themselves and yet not mind that everybody else is laughing as well. this movie truley does have something for everybody. if you are Greek, you will love the familiarity of this movie and will find yourself comparing the people in the film to your own family. You will also find yourself laughing at a few areas in the movie and see nothing but bewildered stares from the non-greeks in the theater. If you are not Greek you will simultaneously wish you were and be glad you are not when you see the closeness, love, overbearing nature and complete lack of any privacy poor Tula goes through in this film.
The movie starts with Tula, a 30 year old Greek girl who is looked at as somewhat of a failure by the family because she has not done what she is supposed to do, Marry a Greek man, Have Greek Children, and cook for everybody until the day she dies. but at least (As said by her aunt) she will be there to take care of her parents when they are old. As tula slowly starts to find her own way, thinking about goind to collage, switching jobs from the family resterant, ect.. enter Ian Miller, from a conservative, WASPy family, and somebody unlike everybody else in Tula’s life. This movie could have so easily de-generated into the typical Hollywood pap, i.e. become preachy about Tula’s right to do what she wants, or done the Three’s company plot of “She tells a fib about her life, he finds out, gets angry, they make up at the end” or lastly and most commonly, made out the WASP family to be bigoted and unaccepting characitures who finally come around after basking in the glow emitted by the Greek family. This movie did none of that, instead you follow Tula and Ian as they realize they are falling in love, and then get to sit through the hilarious real life trouble they have dealing with their differences, most especially Tulas relatives dissbelieve that she would date somebody non-Greek. I gurantee you will NOT have a more enjoyable experience at the movies this year whether you are 12 or 92. The main plot is wonderful, but the little side notes, such as Ians mother bringing a bundt Cake to tulas family and nonbody knowing what it is, or Tulas father believing that windex can cure almost anything, add just another layer to this movie until comedy perfection is achieved. If your young daughters are refusing to go point out to them that a member of N’sync is in the cast then you can listen to them discuss whether or not he gained weight on the ride home. The combination of comedy, real looking people, not large headed starved, botoxed former modles and the real sense of affection with which this writer tells the story are too few and far between. There is a reason this movie is making more money each week than the week before even though it was realeased months ago. You will not be dissappointed.
I had to be nagged severely before I had gone and seen it. I saw the title and thought well….”I’m not greek and know nothing about the culture so maybe I won’t get it” Thanks to my sister I have neverbenn so happy to be nagged before……it was outright funny!! I’ve never laughed so much in public before……my eyes watered, my lungs heaved and wheezed between bursts of laughter the entire time. The DVD will definately be in my private collection. It should be in yours too.
I’ve read the reviews for this movie on Amazon, and boy am I glad I saw the movie first and that I make up my own mind. This movie was fun, moving & romantic. I’m not going to pop out the thesaurus and fill this review with over-large wording, just give this movie a try and I know you’ll love it. After all, how can ALL the people who went to the theaters be wrong?!?
This movie takes every stereotypical assumption you ever had about Greek people, and multiplies it for this laugh out loud satire. Toula has been ruled by her dominating family her whole life, but when she starts seeing, and later gets engaged to Ian Miller, both are determined not to let anyone interfere. What a great romantic comedy, but since there is also a fair amount of drama, I may have classified it incorrectly. Both the acting and script were very well done.