My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002)

A UNIQUELY STRANGE PHENOMENON - EXTREME MISREPRESENTATION TO THE POINT OF ACTUAL LEGAL DEFAMATION - LOOK IT UP!

I represent The Council of Greek Americans, a group of Greek professionals from North America. Many of our members were born and raised in Greece. We decided that here a good place to start to spread our unique message, not only about this movie, but about the Greeks in general. Our message is the following: This movie is actually totally false in its portrayal of the Greeks, and actually Greeks have been greatly misrepresented in many works (movies, TV shows, books, etc.) for about 50 years now. Thus the Greeks have a major problem right now. So why doesn't the general public know about this? Put very simply, there has just been no big effort to tell them about it. We believe firmly that the public is not morally bad; there are just certain issues, such as this one, that they JUST DON'T KNOW ABOUT.

The misrepresentation started about 50 years ago, with works like the movies Never on Sunday (1960) and Zorba the Greek (1964). But at least they were not as bad as the recent works, like this movie, My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002), and the movies Captain Corelli's Mandolin (2001), Windtalkers (2002), Date Movie (2006), 300 (2007), the "Wogsploitation" stuff in Australia, etc. These works are TOTALLY off in their portrayal; Greeks are not anything like that. That's so funny - what most of these movies portray is ITALIAN actually. Actually - that's not fully true about the Italians either; more like extreme Italian stereotypes. But the point is that it sure isn't Greek!

The truth is that Greeks are mainstream European, in all their traits. If you don't believe me, I challenge you - LOOK IT UP. Learn the facts and the history. For example, in the USA, the Greeks first came around 1870, and came in the greatest numbers between 1880-1925; and they had many great achievements, including they had a Vice-President of the country - Spiro Agnew - in the 1960's! That's so funny, the Greek Wedding and the other recent movies portray them as so different from mainstream American, and the truth is the opposite; not only they are not so different from mainstream American, they ARE mainstream American. But for these movies to suddenly come out around the year 2000, after all of the long history, and portray Greeks in this totally new way, and for the general public - both Greeks and non Greeks - to semi allow it, is just incredible. And not just to allow it, but to even let it have some success and influence!

To learn the truth about the Greeks, watch the movies THE TRUCE (1997, John Turturro) and ELENI (1985, John Malkovich). Both these movies have flaws; in The Truce in one part they have the Greek speak Polish, and in another he sounds prejudiced, saying "only Europeans value liberty"; and in Eleni, in one part they say "were you really born in Greece?", etc.; but minus these flaws, these are accurate representations of the Greeks. Also, get these books: The Greek Americans by Dimitris Monos, to find out the truth about the Greek immigrant experience, and Whiteness of a Different Color by Matthew Frye Jacobson, to learn about the interactions of the different racial and ethnic groups in the English-speaking world. Go find out the truth for yourself, and then spread the word to other people about the truth and what I've said here; and then hopefully, in the future, we can start to reverse this crazy situation. September 1, 2008

Transformation and Inspiration with Laughs

My Big Fat Greek Wedding is so much more than a romantic comedy... it is a laugh-out-loud story of a woman changing everything about herself--from ugly duckling to swan... BUT unlike the ugly duckling, genetics aren't doing the work for her. She chooses and goes after a new life, something millions of us can relate to, at least in our desire to change. First she changes her mindset, then her appearance... and then her confidence grows to the point where she's genuinely an attractive person to be around.
There are movies where the hero is always great (Rob Roy), there are movies where the hero is shaped and built by others (Matrix, Ice Age), and then there are a few, like this one, Legally Blonde, and The Pursuit of Happyness where the hero takes charge and becomes someone with greater fulfillment and a bigger life: someone who can inspire the rest of us. But of the transformational movies I mention here, this one is the most realistically accessible for those of us with limited resources and limited ambition.
So, I recommend it as comedy, but more than that, I recommend it to every woman who needs a little inspiration to transform herself, whether in appearance, education, ambition, love, or confidence... August 4, 2008

A Big Fat Overrated Piece of Fluff

I just don't understand it. Why was this, a film about a mousy 30-something Greek woman getting a Pygmalion makeover and finding the man of her dreams, then going through the cacophony of planning a wedding with her colossal nuclear family, such a critical and box-office masterstroke? Why was a script written by the film's star, lacking in plot and containing banal dialogue, hailed as one of the better comedies of 2002? Why does everyone think that this movie is so great?

I'll tell you why - HYPE. Movies like "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" have lived off this wondrous distortion of facts since the beginning of time and the reason for their continued success is that moviegoers never bother to question the gushing quotes of such renowned publications as Newsweek, People and the Los Angeles/New York Times. Simply put, to describe "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" as "hilarious", "brilliant" or otherwise "spectacular" is RUBBISH. This movie is schmaltzy, cringe-inducing and uninspired. 1990's "Father of the Bride" and "Muriel's Wedding" are a riot compared to this.

Here's the mundane storyline: Toula Portokalos (Vardalos) is a woman on the precipice of middle-age whose parents consistently give her grief about being an old maid - all they've wanted and planned for her since she was a child was to get married as soon as she came of age. What makes things worse for her is that her older sister Athena has been married for nearly a decade, has three children and is pregnant with her fourth. Toula is exhausted by the henpecking of her female relatives to find a husband and by her authoritative, sexist father Gus (Constantine) - he is against all things that elevate women above men, particularly regarding employment and higher education.

Problems arise when Toula finally meets Mr. Right, a college professor named Ian Miller (Corbett) whose background radically differs from hers. All spouses within the Portokalos family are of Greek lineage and Ian's opposing ancestry causes dissension with Toula's parents, particularly Gus. So Ian, being the nice guy that he is, decides to get baptized in a Greek Orthodox church so he can obtain a mandated marriage to Toula and make peace with her folks. The movie ends with the extravagant ceremony and reception, complete with an extremely generous wedding gift from Gus to the newlyweds that aims to wrench the heartstrings of its viewers.

There - I've told you the whole story, minus a few details. I'll also tell you that the script, lauded as "hilarious", is far from it. It isn't smart humor, it isn't slapstick, it isn't wry - it's totally uninspired and will leave many people scratching their noggins in utmost bewilderment. Where is the incredible mirth that the critics suggested? Those liars - I should've rented "There's Something About Mary" or "Dumb and Dumber" and gotten my money's worth. Families with a Greek lineage may enjoy the many inside quips, but being German-Irish myself, the jokes were lost on me.

Both Tom Hanks and wife Rita Wilson backed this project by serving as producers, giving the unknown Vardalos a chance to take her one-woman stage show to the mainstream. I'm beginning to think the Hanks were the ONLY reason this film was pushed in the limelight.

Bottom line: "Cutesy" and "heartwarming" would be the fairest ways to describe "My Big Fat Greek Wedding". If you want to be rolling in the aisles, rent "Bruce Almighty" - that's hilarity at it's finest, with a little "heartwarming" on the side.

June 24, 2008

Hard for me to watch but the wife and daughter love it.

Difficult to get past the premise of the male lead selling his soul to become "worthy" of the Greek female lead. But has some funny moments, if you refuse to ever take it seriously. June 16, 2008

My Big Fat Greek Wedding

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.
April 3, 2008

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