All  Things
 Video 

by Carol Lane Patterson 

Movie Review:
My Big Fat Greek Wedding

Often the tale of a film’s genesis matches the uniqueness of the story on the screen. Nia Vardalos, a comedienne actress with her career nourished in Chicago’s Second City comedy environment, decided getting parts in Hollywood was pretty difficult. Difficult enough she decided she would take the alternate route. She wrote a play, casting herself in the lead. As a playwright, her lighthearted handling of love, family and ethnic issues is a sterling example of writing. The ‘biggie’ issue, what is essentially still ‘intermarriage’ to most nationalities, had such universality about the difficulties of blending two families that any audience relates. Add a certain amount of serendipity to the resulting local acclaim and the play came to the attention of another actress, Rita Wilson. Ms. Wilson is also Greek American and also married to a non-Greek’ man (Tom Hanks.) Wilson found the play to be so engaging she recommended that Vardalos consider releasing it in motion picture format with Nia as the lead. Well, considering that was the motivation in the first place for Vardalos to write the part, she agreed and Rita Wilson set the wheels in motion, becoming the cinematic producer of the Vardalos legacy.

Of course that sounds quite ‘Hollywood’ and this tale would not have succeeded’ as well as My Big Fat Greek Wedding is faring this summer had it not been for the fresh, crisp dialogue and rich characterizations in the script and the perfection of acting in the film. Everything meshes to convey Vardalos’ thorough grasp of the human condition. The candid look at family interactions and idiosyncrasies is so genuine and recognizable to any audience that word of mouth is spreading faster than this season’s forest fires. Recent TV trailers flash several ethnic names in the title before settling on the given ‘Greek’ label. Very appropriate as every ethnic group reports how they relate to the depicted family dynamics.

Word of mouth, intrinsic to… Greek Wedding’s success, has taken this movie that made a paltry one million its first weekend, and caused it to accrue in excess of twenty million so far; which, by the way, flies in the face of Hollywood formulas for movie releases. It is the exact opposite of what they generally aim to do and will hopefully make the sun-drenched film crowd reconsider their tactics. It has long been this writer’s contention that putting books and films on the shelf for a few weeks and then relegating them to secondary status is foolish, given that word of mouth doesn’t have a chance of being effective. Our lives are so frenetic and fast that a friend’s recommendation to see a movie often finds several weekends intervening with business, birthdays and the like, until when you finally get a breather and remember you wanted to see a certain flick, it’s already gone.

Catch My Big Fat Greek Wedding, currently enjoying a long release. It’s here for us to enjoy as long as we keep visiting the Portakalos’ and the Millers while they muddle through how to make life work with the ‘spin the lovers bring to their futures and progeny. Nia Vardalos and John Corbett’s characters create a chemistry so palpable you understand why the two families know that they must overcome their wishes and needs in their acceptance of the pairing. Michael Constantine is brilliant as Gus, the universal father and equally universal ethnic head-of-family that comes to accept the decision of one of his own to embrace an outsider. Lainie Kazan, Gia Carides, Louis Mandylor, Joey Fatone and Bruce Gray are superlative in their supporting roles. The entire crowd was brought to us by IFC Films distributing this Gold Circle, HBO, MPH Entertainment, Playtone collaboration.

METAPHYSICAL OVERVIEW: Romeo and Juliet played well to audiences for centuries. It is wonderful to have a new era where the iconic Romeo and Juliet representing the blending of families, cultures and values occurs without commensurate violent feelings and usual resulting death or casting out’.