My Big Fat Greek Wedding

My Big Fat Greek Wedding
My Big Fat Greek Wedding
	Movie poster for My Big Fat Greek Wedding
Directed by	Joel Zwick
Written by	Nia Vardalos
Produced by	Gary Goetzman; Tom Hanks; Rita Wilson
Starring	Nia Vardalos; John Corbett; Lainie Kazan; Michael Constantine; Ian Gomez
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date	April 19 2002 (USA limited)
Running time	95 min.
Language	English
Budget	$5,000,000 US (est.)

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. It is the highest-grossing film to never have been number 1 on the weekly North American box-office charts. In 2003, it was nominated for an Academy Award, Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen. The DVD release in the USA includes a Greek subtitle option.

The movie makes reference to Alexis Zorbas (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.

Plot

The movie is centered on Toula, a Greek-American woman (Nia Vardalos, who also wrote the script), who falls in love with a non-Greek American, Ian (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 has been unlucky in love and in life, and as she narrates in the opening sequence, it is shown that she is the only girl who failed in her family in Greek terms: she has not married a Greek boy, made Greek babies, and fed everyone. Girls who fail, like Toula, are stuck running the family restaurant. In this way, Toula opens as a swarthy, cynical character who wishes she were just happier. Now 30, she believes she has not changed for much better and is headed for disaster. While hosting guests at the restaurant, she makes eye contact with Ian Miller, a school teacher, and Toula embarrasses herself.

Toula makes a resolution to undergo some change, so after she unsuccessfully tries to talk her stubborn father, Gus, into letting her go to college for computer applications, her mother Maria intervenes and easily gets her into going to school. After a short montage, Toula has been taking computer classes, beautifying herself (swapping her Coke-bottle glasses for contacts, putting on blush) and attends a seminar for computers in tourism. Hyped from discovering the seminar, she realizes she could get a job at her Aunt Voula's travel agency. A plan formulates: Toula will work for the travel agency while Voula and her husband Taki take a vacation, and Nikki, their daughter and Toula's cousin, works for the restaurant.

While working for the travel agency, she has grown energized, happy and attractive. One day, she notices that a stranger, Ian, has been progressively looking through the window while she has been working, and after making continuous eye contact, Ian and Toula finally introduce each other and go out for dinner. When Toula is urged to talk about her family life, Ian discovers that she was, in fact, the once-frumpy woman hosting the guests in the restaurant. In spite of this, he tells Toula that he just wants to spend some time with her, and they share their first kiss.

Trying to keep her deepening affair with Ian a secret from her nosy family, Toula pretends to be going to a night pottery class. The jig is up when Toula's cousin Nikki bursts through the travel agency door, and gives Toula a "heads up" that the Toula was seen kissing Ian "in the parking lot" and the news has gotten to Toula's family. The next scene shows Toula sitting unhappily with her mother while dad Gus throws a fit, and Yiayia (the grandmother) takes the opportunity for a quick nip from a bottle. When Toula realizes she really loves Ian, Gus sets up a plan to bring in proper (i.e. Greek) suitors for dinner every night in an attempt to keep Toula in the house at night. Despite this, she and Ian still manage to visit his apartment and meet his parents, who are as straightlaced and conservative as Toula's family is demonstrative.

While in bed at night, Ian proposes to Toula, who accepts, and Gus is ultimately forced to accept it also. Tentatively, he holds Ian's baptism at the Greek Orthodox Church right before Easter, and at the family's Easter festival, it is discovered that Ian is a vegetarian -- a brief crisis for the entire family -- and that he has a lot of trouble pronouncing Greek words. (If he tries to say Khristos Anesti (Christ is risen), he will sound like he is saying, Cheese straws are nasty.) This becomes a popular running gag. The younger males of the family play a series of practical jokes on Ian, such as telling him that the correct Greek phrase for summoning the guests is "έχω τρία αρχίδια" (which in fact means "I have three testicles").

As the year passes the wedding planning hits snag after snag as Toula's relatives "helpfully" interfere. Toula is horrified to learn that her parents invited the entire family to a "quiet" dinner, and the Millers, unused to such cultural fervor, are woefully uncomfortable. After the party, Gus, too, easily sees the rift between the families, and still has trouble accepting it.

On the day of the wedding, Toula has a large pimple on her face and morning madness breaks out. She manages to cover it up with foundation, and Maria unveils the hideous "snow-beast" wedding dress. Everyone attends the wedding with no interruption, and everyone goes to the reception, where a party has started and the Millers begin to enjoy the Greek partying lifestyle. The event was a success for everyone.

As the movie closes, Gus and Maria have bought their daughter a house (being over-zealous, right next door to them) and the Millers have a daughter named Paris. Toula tells Paris that even though she has to go to Greek school instead of Brownies, she can marry anyone she wants.

Cast

Nia Vardalos as Fortula ("Toula") Portokalos
John Corbett as Ian Miller
Michael Constantine as Kosta "Gus" Portokalos
Lainie Kazan as Maria Portokalos
Andrea Martin as Aunt Voula
Louis Mandylor as Nick Portokalos
Gia Carides as Cousin Nikki
Jayne Eastwood as Mrs. White
Joey Fatone as Cousin Angelo
Tom Petkos Cameo as man interviewed on Danforth Ave.
Arielle Sugarman as Paris Miller
Fiona Reid as Ian's Mother.

Location and release dates

The film was shot in Toronto, Ontario, and Chicago, Illinois. 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.

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.

The reviews

Rotten Tomatoes reports that 77% of reviewing North American film critics liked the movie, with 92 positive reviews, and 27 negative.

Martin Grove 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." [1]

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.

Trivia

Several songs for the soundtrack were written by Rick Elias, former member of the Ragamuffin band, are featured on the film's soundtrack. This includes the song "All My Only Dreams" which was written by Scott Rogness and Rick Elias for the Tom Hanks movie That Thing You Do!
Tagline: Love is here to stay... so is her family.
Ian Gomez, who plays Ian Miller's best friend Mike in the movie, is the real-life husband of Nia Vardalos
February 2006 feature Date Movie parodied Greek Wedding, as did My Big Fat Independent Movie, released the previous year. One The Price Is Right Showcase parodied the movie.
Of the actors playing the Portakalos family, the only ones of Greek descent are Nia Vardalos, Michael Constantine (who plays her father), Louis Mandylor (who plays her brother), Stavroula Logothettis (who plays her sister) and Gia Carides (who plays her cousin).
Ian's parents bear a strong resemblance with the people depicted on the famous painting American Gothic.
The phrase that the children repeat after their teacher in Greek school means "Nick has one goat" ("...and Maria has nine. How soon will they marry?")
An episode of the 15th season of The Simpsons is titled "My Big Fat Geek Wedding".

Goofs

There is an actual misprint on the wedding invitation (other than the one intended by the filmmakers spelling the name of Ian's mother Harriet as Harry). In the Greek section, the surname of Toula's family Πορτοκάλος (Portokalos) is misspelled as Ρορτοκάλος (Rortokalos).

Movie Title

The title of the movie is spelled with the Greek letter Sigma (Σ) (since it resembles an E in the English alphabet) instead of Epsilon (GRΣΣK instead of GREEK). Taken literally, its actually GRSSK, since Sigma (Σ) is the Greek letter equivalent for the English S. E is derived from the Greek letter epsilon which is much the same in appearance (Ε, ε) and function.

External links