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'Wedding' might work better onstage than on-screen
John Corbett and Nia Vardalos in 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding'
IFC Films
Still the geeky, bespectacled loner she was as a child, Toula (Nia Vardalos) tells us she was raised with a mandate to marry a Greek-American and to mother and feed a brood.
Her older sister Athena is living on schedule. Their younger brother Nick is to be a cook and marry a Greek-American virgin.
Just when Toula is looking her worst, who should enter Dancing Zorbas — the family restaurant — but Mr. Right?
He's Ian Miller (John Corbett). And obviously he never tasted feta cheese outside of a Greek restaurant.
Toula is paralyzed by her attraction. She stares, lips ajar, and makes a wan, self-conscious joke so badly she ingratiates herself.
For the first time in her life, Toula is seriously wishful. She leaves her parents' employ, fixes her hair, replaces her glasses with contacts and does everything else but wear a neon sign reading Cinderella.
There hasn't been such a feminine transformation on screen since Talia Shire's Adrian removed her bobby pins in "Rocky" (1976).
You know where this is going or it wouldn't be called "My Big Fat Greek Wedding."
And you know that part of the reason it has become a feature film is because movie weddings suggest celebratory romance, laughter and bountiful box office. Since the blockbuster "Four Weddings and a Funeral" we've had hits such as "My Best Friend's Wedding," "Analyze This," "The Wedding Planner," "The Wedding Singer," "Meet the Parents" and the current "Monsoon Wedding."
A major difference in this case is that "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" is based on a performance piece play by Vardalos, who turned it into a screenplay herself.
It's often funniest when she's narrating about her mother (Lainie Kazan as Maria) and her father (Michael Constantine as Gus), who lives for his ethnicity and who believes Windex can cure anything.
Actress Rita Wilson saw Vardalos perform the stage piece and enlisted husband Tom Hanks to join her among the picture's co-producers.
Joel Zwick directed the picture in Toronto even though the story is set in suburban Chicago, where the Portokalos family lives in a house so ornate it's dubbed the Parthenon.
Vardalos, a native of Winnipeg, Manitoba, wrote and performed her play as a member of the Second City comedy troupe. One of the film's endearments is that her eyes are slightly unfocused, which amplifies her sweetness and modesty. The film is played broadly but affectionately. There's much to do about Ian's lack of a Greek background, but it doesn't seem intentional that he's so colorless. Possibly because he was idealized in the stage monologue, he's short-changed in the film. He's highly visible but so compliant he lacks individual identity even as he crosses the cultural abyss.
We can't even see the connection between him and his fish-out-of-water parents (Fiona Reid and Bruce Gray).
After a particularly strong first half hour, "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" settles into a predictable course, without much deviation. The 27 first cousins arrive and move about like a non-verbal Greek chorus.
The only wild card is Gus' newly immigrated mother, who is senile and sufficiently paranoid to see Turks lurking everywhere.
No matter. Ian is a vegetarian, is he? Whatever. Toula, pass him the lamb.
| 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding' |
Director: Joel Zwick
Stars: Nia Vardalos
MPAA Rating: PG for sensuality and language
