My Big Fat Greek Wedding

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My Big Fat Greek Wedding

Movie poster for My Big Fat Greek Wedding
Directed by Joel Zwick
Produced by Gary Goetzman
Tom Hanks
Rita Wilson
Written by Nia Vardalos
Starring Nia Vardalos
John Corbett
Lainie Kazan
Michael Constantine
Ian Gomez
Distributed by IFC Films
Playtone
Release date(s) April 19, 2002 (USA limited)
Running time 95 min.
Language English
Budget $5,000,000 (est.)
Gross revenue Domestic
$241,438,208
Foreign
$127,305,836
Worldwide
$368,744,044[1]

My Big Fat Greek Wedding is a 2002 romantic comedy film written by and starring Nia Vardalos and directed by Joel Zwick. It was the fifth highest grossing movie of 2002 in the USA, with USD$241,438,208, and the highest-grossing romantic comedy in history.[2] It is also the highest-grossing film never having been number 1 on the weekly North American box-office charts.[3] At the 76th Academy Awards, it was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.

Contents

[edit] Plot

The movie is centered on Fotoula "Toula" Portokalos, a Greek-American woman (Nia Vardalos, who also wrote the script), who falls in love with a WASP, Ian Miller (played by John Corbett). The movie also examines the protagonist's relationship with her family, with their cultural heritage and value system, which is sometimes rocky but ends with mutual appreciation.

Toula is going through an early midlife crisis. At thirty, she is the only woman in her family who has "failed" in Greek terms (her family expects her to "marry a Greek, have Greek babies and feed everyone until the day we die.") Instead, Toula is stuck running the family business, a restaurant, "Dancing Zorba's". In contrast to her "perfect" sister, Athena (Stavroula Logothetis), Toula is a frumpy, cynical character who can barely articulate her desires and merely wishes for happiness. Now thirty, she fears she's doomed to be stuck with her life as it is.

At the restaurant, she encounters Ian Miller (John Corbett), a school teacher (the character shares a given name with Vardalos's equally non-Greek husband, Ian Gomez, who plays a supporting role in the film). With mom Maria's (Lainie Kazan) help, she talks her father "Gus" (Michael Constantine) into letting her sign up for computer classes, which she says she can use to help improve the business. Now caring more about her appearance, she abandons her unflattering eyeglasses for contact lenses and begins to wear makeup and attractive dresses. A bulletin at the school announces a seminar for computer systems related to travel agencies. Toula's Aunt Voula runs such an agency, and Toula decides to change jobs to work for her aunt. With her aunt and mother, she engages in an intricate scheme to convince her father that it was actually his idea to allow her to work for the travel agency so he will allow Toula to leave the restaurant business.

Toula feels much better in her new job, especially when she notices Ian hanging around looking at her through the window. They finally introduce themselves and go out for dinner. Ian at first does not recognize that she is the once-frumpy waitress from Zorba's, but even when he does, he tells Toula he wishes to spend time with her.

The affair quickly becomes a passionate whirlwind courtship which Toula keeps secret from her family until some weeks later. Toula's cousin Nikki warns Toula that a nosy neighbor saw her kissing Ian and told the family. Gus throws a fit because Ian is "xenos", a foreigner. Ian politely asks permission to continue seeing her, but Gus stubbornly refuses. Toula and Ian still manage to visit his apartment, where their relationship becomes more intimate. Soon after, Toula meets Ian's upper-middle class, WASP parents, who are as reserved as her family is demonstrative.

Ian proposes, she accepts, and Gus is ultimately forced to accept their relationship. Ian readily agrees to convert to the Greek Orthodox faith in order to be worthy of Toula, and is baptized in traditional fashion. At the family's Easter festival, Ian confesses he is a vegetarian — a brief crisis for the entire family ensues — and he has a lot of trouble pronouncing Greek words. (He tries to say Khristos Anesti (Christ is risen), and it comes out Cheese straws are nasty.) This becomes a popular running gag with Toula's younger brother Nick (Louis Mandylor). When Ian asks how to say "thank you" to Toula's mom Maria, Nick gives him the words "Oréa viziá," — "Nice boobs!". But Maria slaps Nick, not Ian, knowing full well who taught him.

As the year passes, the wedding planning hits snag after snag as Toula's relatives "helpfully" interfere; her father insists on inviting the entire church to the ceremony, her mother orders the invitations but misspells Ian's parents' names (instead of Rodney & Harriet, it now says 'Rodney & Harry'), and Nikki orders incredibly tacky bridesmaids dresses. Toula is horrified to learn that her parents invited the entire family to what was meant to be a "quiet" dinner, and the Millers, unused to such cultural fervor, are woefully overwhelmed. They bring a Bundt cake, but Maria is bemused by the hole and puts a potted flower in the middle. Meanwhile, Ian wants to invite the guests inside, and warily consults Nick. After confirming the words with cousin Angelo (Joey Fatone), Ian calls out "έχω τρία αρχίδια" ("I have three testicles"), sparking general hilarity.

Gus still doesn't see how the relationship can work out, but others in the family are encouraging; in a touching scene, Toula's senile yiayia (grandmother, played by Bess Meisler), in a rare interval of mental lucidity, shows Toula some of her private treasures, including pictures of herself as a girl, and her own stéfana (wedding crown) which she gives Toula to wear. Nick secretly comes to Toula to confide that her courage in changing her life has inspired him to do likewise, and he plans to attend the city college to study art.

The wedding day dawns with liveliness and hysteria. Toula is horrified to find she has a stress zit, but covers it with foundation. The traditional wedding itself is quiet, dignified, and goes without a hitch. Everyone goes to the reception, and the Millers, (fortified with many glasses of ouzo) begin to enjoy the Greek partying lifestyle. Gus gives a speech, in which he analyzes the name "Miller" as having come from the Greek "milo", meaning "apple". He then declares that, since his own last name "Portokalos" means "orange", the two families are "...apples and oranges. We're different but, in the end, we're all fruit". During the final scene where many of the party goers engage in a group dance, Aunt Voula watches Ian dancing with Toula and declares with quiet passion, "...he LOOKS Greek!"

According to Greek tradition, Gus and Maria have bought a gift for the young couple: a house (right next door to them). The film's epilogue shows the Millers' life a few years later; they have a daughter named Paris, who would rather attend Brownies than Greek school, but Toula promises the child that she can marry anyone she chooses.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Location and release dates

The film was shot in Toronto and Chicago. Toronto's Ryerson University and Greektown neighborhood feature prominently in the film. Despite its writer being from Winnipeg, and the use of Toronto for location shots, the movie was set in Chicago. Walking tours of Greektown on Danforth Avenue point out scene locations. The home used to depict Gus and Maria Portokalos' residence (as well as the home bought next door at the end of the film for Toula and Ian) is located on Glenwood Crescent just off O'Connor Drive in East York. The real home representing the Portokalos' residence actually has most of the external ornamentation that was shown in the film. Also, some minor parts of the movie were shot in Jarvis High School in Toronto.

After a February 2002 premiere, it was initially released in the USA April 19, 2002. That summer it opened in Iceland, Israel, Greece, and Canada. The following fall and winter it opened in Turkey, UK, New Zealand, Argentina, Australia, Hong Kong, Brazil, Norway, the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Spain, Belgium, Italy, Taiwan, the Philippines, Egypt, Peru, Sweden, Mexico, Hungary, Germany, Austria, Switzerland (German speaking region), France, Poland, Kuwait, Estonia, and Lithuania. It was finally released in South Korea in March 2003, and Japan in July 2003.

[edit] Reception and performance

My Big Fat Greek Wedding became a sleeper hit and grew steadily from its limited release. Despite never hitting the #1 spot and being an independent film with a $5 million budget, it ultimately grossed over $368 million worldwide, becoming one of the top romantic films of the 21st Century according to Echo Bridge Entertainment.[1]

Martin Grove of Hollywood Reporter wrote, "Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson [...] found 'Wedding' when it was a one-woman Nia Vardalos play in L.A. and believed in it so much that they got it made as a movie".[4]

[edit] Trivia and Notes

[edit] My Big Fat Greek Life

Main article: My Big Fat Greek Life

The movie inspired the brief 2003 TV series My Big Fat Greek Life, with most of the major characters played by the same actors, with the exception of Steven Eckholdt replacing John Corbett as the husband. Corbett had already signed on to the TV series Lucky. He was scheduled to appear as the best friend of his replacement's character, but the show was cancelled before he appeared. The show received poor reviews from critics noting the random character entrances and serious plot "adjustments" that didn't match the movie.

The 7 episodes from the series are available on DVD from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, whose TV studio division produced the show.

[edit] Cultural references

Throughout the film, Kostas "Gus" Portokalos, played by Michael Constantine, continuously uses Windex, the popular window cleaner, as a remedy for everything.

The movie makes reference to Zorba the Greek (1964), The Lost Boys (1987), That Thing You Do! (1996), and Meet the Parents (2000), while spoofing Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967). Another independent Canadian feature, Mambo italiano (2003), referenced Wedding. Because of the surprise success of Wedding and its unusual title, its name was lampooned by several television series and movies:

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b "My Life in Ruins". https://www.echobridgeentertainment.com/uploads/90305EPK.pdf.  Echo Bridge Entertainment. Retrieved on May 12, 2008
  2. ^ "TV Review - My Big Fat Greek Life". Entertainment Weekly. 2003-04-07. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,254097,00.html. Retrieved on 2008-09-28. 
  3. ^ "Top Grossing Movies that never hit #1". Box Office Mojo. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/domestic/never1.htm. Retrieved on 2008-07-26. 
  4. ^ Gibson breaks Hollywood's 10 Commands

[edit] External links

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