"My Big Fat Greek Wedding" plays out very well as a sitcommish, mirthful comedy exploring culture clashes through romance and family. It features two distinctly different identities: the White Anglo Saxxon Protestant, colliding with the Greek Orthodox, and humorously explores how, despite their apparent differences, there can still be a happy, healthy situation made out of a romance between the two, in growing to understand and appreciate one another rather than dismissing each other as intangible and unattainable. So we have a zippy romance formed between a coy, 30-something Greek woman and a gregarious, unashamed American man, and the two really hit it off... That is, until the woman (Toula Portokalos)'s family enters the picture, and the extravagant preparations for their wedding are under way, whether the two estranged lovebirds like it or not! This is some pretty humorous, if derivative, material: a near perfect idea for a sitcom, which quite ironically faltered miserably when the idea was adapted to the silver screen. It's far from being a sensational and very satisfying comedy, however, as it is somewhat uneconomical in exploring the many hilarious elements that separate the Greeks and the Americans, and while it does make an attempt, delivering such clever zingers as "Every English word was derived by the Greeks" and "You don't eat meat... That's okay, I'll make lamb", there is plenty of other funny material that could have substituted for the vapid sentimental scenes. It's a very clever premise, and obviously very appealing, as this tiny independent romp somehow managed to garner a monstrous $240 million in domestic box office receipts, yet is perhaps too conventional and provides more sentimentality than raunchiness, and isn't really worthy of the prestigious title of "a must-see, charming, and effective film: tell your friends, it's a sensational phenomenon" that people have given it much credit for. Cultural clash is quite amusing, and very popular, in this day and age, yet when the expectations are stratosphere for such a film as this to "delight you to the end", "My Big Fat Greek Wedding", I have to say, somewhat disappoints, in that it is too hurried, too sentimental, and too unresolved toward the end. I will comment that a sequel involving the married life of this peculiar couple and Toula's outrageous family is in dire order, and can perhaps improve upon areas where this film lacked. This is a (mostly) entertaining, clever, and amusing romp of a comedy, that somewhat lacks in character and plot development, and demands a less mushy, more lewd execution. It's good, just not "phenomenal blockbuster dynamite". *** out of ****
Review of My Big Fat Greek Wedding
