My Big Fat Greek Wedding

2002 "Love is here to stay... so is her family."
6.6| 1h35m| PG| en| More Info
Released: 19 April 2002 Released
Producted By: HBO
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

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.

Genre

Drama, Comedy, Romance

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Director

Joel Zwick

Production Companies

HBO

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My Big Fat Greek Wedding Audience Reviews

UnowPriceless hyped garbage
Senteur As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.
Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.
Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
Devran ikiz Because they are unknown and, therefore, a mystery to the audience, stories about distant cultures are always welcome in cinema. You can pretty much play around the story and make it appealable. Director Joel Zwick uses this power in a positive, non-exaggerated way and creates a sweet film. In this point of view, "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" is a highly enjoyable and sincere romantic comedy. Everyone in the film is like a real character from the real world. Because of the performances, you get the feeling like they are a real family. This film tends to entertain the audience by pointing out the funny or unaccustomed styles of the Greek Culture. Of course, not everything you see is real but keeping this within the limits of acceptance is one of the strongest points of the film. "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" is not story based. What is happening around the story is the real thing. The film is about Ian (John Corbett) and Toula (Nia Vardalos) meeting, dating and getting married. Toula has a highly traditional Greek family none of which has ever been married with a non-Greek. Toula being the strong female character of the film, she educates herself and gets what she wants against the general belief that the missions of a Greek woman which are to marry a Greek man, to have Greek children and to feed everyone until the day she dies. The film opens with this explanation and gives us some early clues about the story of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding."Toula has a huge family and each character is convincingly funny. While you are watching the film, you forget the fact that they are acting. This creates a cozy, sincere and warm environment for the audience. The family is also highly proud to be Greek. Toula's father claims that every word has a Greek root and tries aimlessly to find connections between the words and their possible Greek roots. During the film, I was amazed to see how many common things Turks and Greeks are sharing. As a Turkish citizen, even I was surprised to find out more about Greeks, so imagine how Americans must have felt while watching the film. Ian's mother and father are the visual representatives of the American people.Having a big family has its own advantages and disadvantages. Film uses the concept of the big family as an advantage, making "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" a character oriented film. Each character has its own story and background and they have unbelievably strong bonds which can't be broken. Human beings are social creatures. To feel good, secure and peaceful, we need to belong somewhere. This is a universal truth. That's why we make families and friends, that's why we create bonds with people. This idea is integrated with the story in a way which makes the film enjoyable. The audience finds a place for themselves in Portokalos family and that's why accepts the film as one of their own. This might explain the financial success of the film with a very little promotion and marketing. It went even further and got itself a nomination at the 75th Academy Awards for The Best Original Screenplay. After the film, Nia Vardalos created a sitcom on the same idea with Marsh McCall and produced it along with the producers of the film, Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson. However, the serial ended after 7 episodes. Eventually they made a sequel in 2016 to "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," in which Toula's mother is getting married with her father after fifty years being together. This film turned out not to be as successful as the first one."My Big Fat Greek Wedding" is not a standard Hollywood film where even the most beautiful actresses can't get a date. Nia Vardalos is the heroine of the film. Because she is not a standard Hollywood actress, her struggles seem real. It is very normal for Toula not to be able to kick off her life or not being able to find a date. This can happen in real life. She is single and 30 years old which is totally against her family's beliefs, she can't find a date because she is not attractive and always under the shadow of her father. Everyone in the film is acting with a real amateur spirit and this creates film's sincerity and credibility, which are the other strong points of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding." Directed by Joel Zwick and written by Nia Vardalos, "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" is a highly entertaining film.
Dee Mou This was a hilarious movie that does a good job of bringing the tragicomical conflict of growing up Greek to the big screen. I was laughing the whole time. Yes, it got some flack from very traditional people who didn't like having the things they actually do in real life mocked in such a big way, but it was all in good fun. The only thing that my older neighbor (Kiria B....) complained about was the spitting. Occasionally she still complains, "No well-raised Greek actually spits, though we do make the sound 'Ftou Ftou' because of the mati...." I have the DVD and watch it almost every summer with family and friends. Very well cast with a solid plot and perfect timing with the humorous bits. Well done, Nia.
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.
sallyinco-828-922261 This is a very sweet movie. A nice feel good movie but I think it was nearly ruined by the parents of the groom.There acting is is like acting from a school play! It is such lazy story writing, the W.A.S.P. parents are cold, ignorant and frightened of other cultures! Yet their son is intelligent, very well educated and open-minded and it really seems like they have never even met. It is such a shame that in a movie about the inner workings of family that the movie makers got a bit bored and tired before managing to develop all of the main characters. I think the male lead's "likeability" and cuteness carry's this movie and of course the Greek Mammy! :) Saying that,it's very enjoyable very sweet and reminds me of movies in the 80's.