My Big Fat Greek Wedding
My Big Fat Greek Wedding
PG | 19 April 2002 (USA)
My Big Fat Greek Wedding Trailers

A young Greek woman falls in love with a non-Greek and struggles to get her family to accept him while she comes to terms with her heritage and cultural identity.

Reviews
Gutsycurene

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

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Plustown

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

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Zlatica

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

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Josephina

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

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yildirimbusra

*** This review contains spoilers ***My Big Fat Greek Wedding Review There is a big family who lives in Chicago even though they all are brought up to be strictly Greek. Father of the family is Gus which is very racist of Greek and her daughter and other members of the family are Voula, Yiayia, Maria, Nick Portokalos living the same home together. Our main character Toula Portokalas is a woman who is 30 years and not married yet. She lives in America but grows in the totally Greek family. Her father is so Greek that he can even turn 'kimono' means into Greek version. Toula has a brother and sister. Her sister is a traditional Greek woman who has many kids and a Greek husband, on the other hand, Toula hasn't. Her parents want her to marry with Greek man and has kids as far as possible like her sister, but she is little bit introverted and shy person until she meets with Ian Miller who is an American man Miller Ian. Miller Ian's life and background are a little bit different from Toula's. He has very small and separated family when I compare with the Greek family. His parents are not obsessive of racism or religion. Also, Miller does not care about Toula at the beginning of the movie because of her strange appearance and altitude but later Toula starts to be a real woman then she grabs Miller's attention. When they are together I observed that different background and lifestyle of Toula makes her attractive and irresistible to Miller. The more they date the more they get closer which means Families need to meet but Greek family and American family are totally different from each other. Thus, Toula and Miller have a really difficult job in terms of cultures conflict. Taula was going to introduce Miller to her family but one relative sees them together in the car while they are kissing. Then all family hear it and come home. Taula's father gets mad that Miller is not a Greek man and does not accept him as a groom. After that day, Family starts to look for different grooms but Taula still loves Miller so much and Miller introduces her to his family. She looks so nervous because Miller's parents are not talkative and lively like her parents. Also, they cannot even pronounce Taula's surname because it is so long and they are not accustomed to hearing it in their daily life but at least they respect her and accept her as a bride. Then Taula's family is persuaded because they see that her little daughter really loves Miller and wants to marry only with him. Miller, Taula, and parents come together and celebrate Easter. In this part of the film, I realized that Miller feels so happy with this strange and noisy family because he has not a family like that. After celebrity, in a short span of time they marry and Father Gus buy them a house as a wedding gift. In my opinion, 'house' is a symbol and it represents that Greek family really adopt and accept him to their big family. The movie ends like this now I want to write about culture concept in this movie. As far as I observe that Greek's daily life and expectations are the same as ours. For example, someone says 'I prepared moussaka tonight for you'. I really know that this is actually our food. This is probably because of so many interactions of two different cultures. The more Greek and Turkish cultures conflict and interact, the more our cultures get similar to each other as we observe here, on the other hand, American's culture is very different from Greek culture. The American family is a little bit calm and they don't live in big families as Greek and Turkish families. Apart from this, the structure of the family is also the same with Greek people. For example, Greek family is also crowded and depended on each other like us. They live together in the same house. Even the altitude of the mother is same. For example, Turkish mother acts as if the guest was starving even though S/he is not. This is because both cultures are welcoming to guests. It was like that in the movie. Until this movie, I have never known that Turkish and Greek cultures are close like this. Another similarity is getting married off. In Turkey, if you are mature people who have a great job, you need to marry with someone like in the movie. Until this movie, I guess that we are the only ones supporting marriage after a particular age, but I think it is good to hear other voices. Other similarities between two cultures are music. I feel like I am watching a Turkish series. Especially in the wedding ceremony, the tone is very Islamic and they say 'amin' instead of 'amen'. Also Greeks like eating meat like us that's why they feel shocked when they hear that Miller is vegetarian. I learned that Greek and Turkish cultures are so similar with the help of this movie. To sum up, people from different background and cultures can get on well with each other and people should not be prejudged. As far as I observe If you are racist and nationalist to people maybe you cannot realize and see the good part of them. As Gus says Toula can be 'Portokalos' which means orange and Miller can be 'apple' but they are all fruits.

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A_Different_Drummer

The IMDb rating is too low.As a simple rom-com, it is almost flawless.Sweet, entertaining, well-written, funny, interesting, it basically checks all the boxes.But when you also consider this was a breakout film for Nia Vardalos, who not only starred but wrote, it gets even better. The script is tight, yes, but the performance of Ms. Vardalos is even tighter.Have seen the film three times now and each time I marvel at how precise her comic timing is, her asides, her micro-expressions. A vastly under-rated performance.(For students of film, which is most of us, also worth noting is that once again we have Toronto streets being represented as a US city.) Highly recommended. Unfortunately cannot say the same for the sequel.

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SnoopyStyle

In Chicago, Toula Portokalos (Nia Vardalos) is a 30 year old Greek spinster. She has always been the frumpy outsider from a large family. Her proud Greek father wants her to marry a nice Greek boy and have a bunch of Greek kids. She works at the family restaurant where Ian Miller (John Corbett) comes in one day. She falls for the tall teacher immediately. She decides to go back to school to study computers and her mother convinces her father. She starts working at Aunt Voula (Andrea Martin)'s travel agency. She meets Ian again and they start dating before getting her father's approval.I like the family more than the couple. Vardalos and Corbett are not necessarily top rank actors. They don't make for a great rom-com pairing. What excels is the extended Greek family. They are all great and each one brings fun joy. The movie drags when it focuses on the couple. It's not like their relationship is that compelling or dramatic. They are functional but the family is excellent.

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goolizap

Boy, how well does this film holds up 14 years later. Can we finally admit to its greatness now?Whatever tropes it derives from the rom-coms of old serve only to make us feel comfortable in its grasp. But don't let the formula fool you. This film is anything but cloying. It opts out of cliché and sappy--instead, giving us rompy situations that we could actually see happening in our own lives. Toula, played by Nia Vardalos, who also wrote the film, is a 30-year-old woman whose family fears will become an eternal spinster. She doesn't seem to care about her appearance, and she is very awkward when it comes to talking to other people. She is of Greek origin, and her family won't let her forget it. They're the type who only talk to other Greek people. On the other hand, Toula doesn't care.She meets Ian (John Corbett), who isn't Greek. They fall in love and want to get married, but have to deal with the wrath of her family--mostly her father, played by Michael Constantine.The cast is perfect--especially Constantine, who we are often times convinced is Vardalos' actual father playing himself.The humor is mostly made of inside jokes from Greek culture. If you're not savvy on that, you might think you won't understand. But the script does an excellent job of not making us feel like an outsider. And most of us have families with weird traditions and tendencies, too, so we get it.There are a few lulls in the narrative, but the script always recovers well with something funny around the corner.My Big Fat Greek Wedding is truly funny in the most organic way possible. The scenarios all seem real. Vardalos is believable and hilarious in the lead role. She channels the sort of uninhibitedness that Lucille Ball was known for. Almost like a Kristen Wiig before her time.But most of all, this film speaks to generations of society who can't see past cultural differences. It was relevant back in 2002, and is still very much that way now. It's a tale we've been seeing, in one way or another, for centuries now, but still can't seem to get us to change our ways. Although no one's life is at stake in this film, we could all learn a thing or two from the story. It's deceptively deep. Twizard Rating: 94

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