Tolstoy once wrote that "All happy families resemble one another, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."" And the family in Nia Vardalos' movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding could have just as easily been Italian or Jewish or just about any other nationality on earth. The point is, the family was happy in the kind of ways to which most of us can relate.
And that's the recipe for a very funny movie.
The movie depicts the kind of frenzy and folly that inevitably ensues when someone from a large family is either deemed to be getting a little long in the tooth to be (still) unmarried, or when they finally do announce impending nuptials. No, it's not War and Peace, and it won't earn you credibility points in academic circle to quote it, but My Big Fat Greek wedding is a good bit of honest-to-goodness fun.
Anyone who has ever experienced the joys and pain of planning a wedding will relate to this movie. And if you haven't had that pleasure, you can sit back and laugh at those of us who have. There are the fights with your mate, the attempts to please passive-aggressive relatives, and the uncanny feeling that you are, with each passing moment, spiraling out of control of your life "and your wallet. In real life, that makes for a series of Excedrin moments. At the movies, it makes for the exchange of knowing smiles with your seatmates and, often, uproarious belly laughs. .
But the film isn't all just fluff and funny. It's got some substance, at least. It's supposed to be the story of a woman (Toula, played by Vardalos) who finally breaks free of her father's house and his rules to live the life she really wants. That theme get somewhat muddled along the way, however, when 30-year-old Toula asks her father's permission to take computer courses at the local college. Not exactly the actions of a liberated woman, but she gets there. Eventually. .
John Corbett plays the part of Toula's fiancé, and also of the pushover.