MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING
US, 2002, 95 minutes, Colour.
Nia Vardalos, Michael Constantine, Lainie Kazan, Andrea Martin, John Corbett, Louis Mandylor, Gia Carides.
Directed by Joel Zwick.
Muriel's, My Best Friend's, Monsoon - plenty of cinema wedding titles in recent years. All these films are comedies and offer plenty of laughs. However, under the bright surface, there are much more serious issues. This means that, as the films entertain while they are on the screen, they have something more to say, for audiences to take away and think about.
The obvious thing about a Greek wedding is that it is a profoundly as well as superficially cultural affair. Everybody is in on it. It is loud, exuberant, full of eating, drinking and dancing. Which is all right if you are Greek. But, what if you are from a traditional American WASP style family and exuberance is not your middle name? Then you have to learn to open up and break out. This must be a significant message in the US today because this modestly-budgeted film has taken well over $US100,000,000 in America alone.
It also travels quite well because the issues are pretty universal: the patriarchal culture where the father decides everything (or where the shrewd mothers make the fathers think they have decided everything), where no one is supposed to marry outside the culture, where the old country traditions are the only ones because they have formed the greatest culture the world has every known! Of couse, this could be an Italian wedding or an Irish wedding...
The film was originally a one-woman theatre piece, performed by Nia Vardalos. The story is that Rita Wilson saw it and enjoyed it, mentioned it to her husband Tom Hanks who invited Nia to Los Angeles not only to write it for the screen but to be the star. And so it is. Nia Vardalos appears as frumpy but, before our eyes, gains self-confidence and transforms into a fine-looking (as distinct from pretty/beautiful) woman. Into the Portakalos restaurant and into the family comes Ian Miller (John Corbett) and, for a while, pandemonium ensues. But, you know that in this era of multi-culturalism, the Millers will have to learn to be more Mediterranean and the Portakalos family will have to add their Greek heritage to the American tradition. And that's it.
1. The success and popularity of the film? Stereotypes in good humour? The film as funny?
2. The work of Nia Vardalos, the script, her performance, her character, change?
3. Chicago, the Greek community, homes, restaurants, agencies?
4. The Greek community, pride in the heritage, the father and all words derived from Greek, the range of traditions, family, the expectations of marriage, the enclosed community, changes in contemporary America, the image of the Greeks, learning from the Americans, vice-versa? What the Greeks have to offer?
5. Toula, the opening, the disputes with her sister, her place in the family, the dominance of her father, the support of her mother? Her brother and his work in the restaurant, his ambitions for drawing? The practical jokes? The range of cousins? Toula as plain, awkward, going to school, with other students, her self-consciousness, her age, her jobs in the restaurant, the expectations of marriage? Seeing Ian at the restaurant, awkward, clumsy?
6. The portrait of the father, his life, sad-faced, proud, the success of his restaurant, the Greek traditions, the son and his art, the patriarch of the family, his criticisms of Toula? His wife, keeping her husband under control without his realising it? Persuading him with the aunt for Toula to go to study? The agency?
7. Maria, the matriarch, sympathetic, her relationship with her sister, their plans, her working with her husband, making her ideas his?
8. The agency, Toula’s skills, the gradual visual makeover, makeup, clothes, the effect? Affirmation? Her skill at her work in the agency, her courtesy? Seeing Ian outside the agency, hiding from him?
9. Ian, typical American, friendly, at the restaurant with his friend, their discussions, the encounter with Toula and her awkwardness? Passing the agency, the window? Talking with her, the comic touches, their outings, recognising her? The effect on Toula, their sharing, discussions, differences? Toula pretending she was at an art course, the cousins as spies, reporting her?
10. Ian and his parents, quiet Americans, awkward with the Greek visitor, the contrast with Toula’s family, the invitation, the mixing up of the names of Ian’s parents? Crowds, drinking, dancing, the Americans uncomfortable? The move to change?
11. Ian and his meeting the parents, the crowd, the discussions about vegetarianism and meat, the Greeks and the rude words, tricking Ian? Nikki and her flirting? Ian and his getting used to the community, the tricks? His agreeing to the baptism? The ceremony and its detail? The plans for the wedding?
12. Toula and her changing, in love, valuing relationships, the visits, the arguments as to how Greek the wedding should be?
13. The immediate preparations, the zit, the fuss, the dresses, the bridesmaids, the fittings?
14. The ceremony, solemn? Acknowledgments of the traditions of the Greek Orthodox?
15. The happy ending, the joy, the gift of the house – and their living next door?
16. A US story, Greek story, American values and spirit?
