Because they are unknown and, therefore, a mystery to the audience, stories about distant cultures are always welcome in cinema. You can pretty much play around the story and make it appealable. Director Joel Zwick uses this power in a positive, non-exaggerated way and creates a sweet film. In this point of view, "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" is a highly enjoyable and sincere romantic comedy. Everyone in the film is like a real character from the real world. Because of the performances, you get the feeling like they are a real family. This film tends to entertain the audience by pointing out the funny or unaccustomed styles of the Greek Culture. Of course, not everything you see is real but keeping this within the limits of acceptance is one of the strongest points of the film. "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" is not story based. What is happening around the story is the real thing. The film is about Ian (John Corbett) and Toula (Nia Vardalos) meeting, dating and getting married. Toula has a highly traditional Greek family none of which has ever been married with a non-Greek. Toula being the strong female character of the film, she educates herself and gets what she wants against the general belief that the missions of a Greek woman which are to marry a Greek man, to have Greek children and to feed everyone until the day she dies. The film opens with this explanation and gives us some early clues about the story of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding."Toula has a huge family and each character is convincingly funny. While you are watching the film, you forget the fact that they are acting. This creates a cozy, sincere and warm environment for the audience. The family is also highly proud to be Greek. Toula's father claims that every word has a Greek root and tries aimlessly to find connections between the words and their possible Greek roots. During the film, I was amazed to see how many common things Turks and Greeks are sharing. As a Turkish citizen, even I was surprised to find out more about Greeks, so imagine how Americans must have felt while watching the film. Ian's mother and father are the visual representatives of the American people.Having a big family has its own advantages and disadvantages. Film uses the concept of the big family as an advantage, making "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" a character oriented film. Each character has its own story and background and they have unbelievably strong bonds which can't be broken. Human beings are social creatures. To feel good, secure and peaceful, we need to belong somewhere. This is a universal truth. That's why we make families and friends, that's why we create bonds with people. This idea is integrated with the story in a way which makes the film enjoyable. The audience finds a place for themselves in Portokalos family and that's why accepts the film as one of their own. This might explain the financial success of the film with a very little promotion and marketing. It went even further and got itself a nomination at the 75th Academy Awards for The Best Original Screenplay. After the film, Nia Vardalos created a sitcom on the same idea with Marsh McCall and produced it along with the producers of the film, Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson. However, the serial ended after 7 episodes. Eventually they made a sequel in 2016 to "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," in which Toula's mother is getting married with her father after fifty years being together. This film turned out not to be as successful as the first one."My Big Fat Greek Wedding" is not a standard Hollywood film where even the most beautiful actresses can't get a date. Nia Vardalos is the heroine of the film. Because she is not a standard Hollywood actress, her struggles seem real. It is very normal for Toula not to be able to kick off her life or not being able to find a date. This can happen in real life. She is single and 30 years old which is totally against her family's beliefs, she can't find a date because she is not attractive and always under the shadow of her father. Everyone in the film is acting with a real amateur spirit and this creates film's sincerity and credibility, which are the other strong points of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding." Directed by Joel Zwick and written by Nia Vardalos, "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" is a highly entertaining film.

The IMDb rating is too low.As a simple rom-com, it is almost flawless.Sweet, entertaining, well-written, funny, interesting, it basically checks all the boxes.But when you also consider this was a breakout film for Nia Vardalos, who not only starred but wrote, it gets even better. The script is tight, yes, but the performance of Ms. Vardalos is even tighter.Have seen the film three times now and each time I marvel at how precise her comic timing is, her asides, her micro-expressions. A vastly under-rated performance.(For students of film, which is most of us, also worth noting is that once again we have Toronto streets being represented as a US city.) Highly recommended. Unfortunately cannot say the same for the sequel.

In Chicago, Toula Portokalos (Nia Vardalos) is a 30 year old Greek spinster. She has always been the frumpy outsider from a large family. Her proud Greek father wants her to marry a nice Greek boy and have a bunch of Greek kids. She works at the family restaurant where Ian Miller (John Corbett) comes in one day. She falls for the tall teacher immediately. She decides to go back to school to study computers and her mother convinces her father. She starts working at Aunt Voula (Andrea Martin)'s travel agency. She meets Ian again and they start dating before getting her father's approval.I like the family more than the couple. Vardalos and Corbett are not necessarily top rank actors. They don't make for a great rom-com pairing. What excels is the extended Greek family. They are all great and each one brings fun joy. The movie drags when it focuses on the couple. It's not like their relationship is that compelling or dramatic. They are functional but the family is excellent.

In 2016, we were granted yet another sequel no one was asking for and so, it sparked me to see the original a second time. I remember seeing My Big Fat Greek Wedding one time only in theatres 14 years ago and loving it. I laughed out loud and found it charming, an interesting look into a stereotypical Greek family and romantic. But, the laughter I had, mostly about the Grandma's escape plans and the Windex® commercials, I recall the most.Sadly, almost a decade and a half later, it didn't hold up. Now, that's not saying I still didn't laugh at a few scenes, though surprisingly not about the Grandmother or Windex® – maybe that was the shock value back then, and I still feel it is charming, it just now feels like to me an extremely annoying family meets another stereotypical and blind to other cultures family.The story is simple: "aging" Toula is tired of her extended and meddling family and (literally, more than once) falls for a 90s stand-in good-guy reject. The object of her obsession is not Greek, like her family wants her to court, and is plainly, a one-note nice guy who's tired of all the same ole women. To spoil that they're gonna get married is fruitless due to the title, but the real spoiler is that no one's really fat. I suppose they're equating "fat" with "a lot" as in how many family members there are. OK, granted, the dad has some extra pounds and our heroine, Toula, isn't in the best of shape, but the word "fat" probably shouldn't have been used.Again, the movie is charming. It's harmless and cute. Plus it does have some genuine insight and the family, unbelievably, due to their annoying behavior, grows on you. So it's a recommendation.Now, as for the sequel I'm about to watch…well…I will be disappointed if, 14 years later, Toula isn't actually fat. Now that, I would laugh at.***Final thoughts: What a fall from grace. I didn't write a review on this movie 14 years ago, the only time I've seen it, but I distinctly remember granting it 5/5 stars and thought it was one of the funniest movies I had seen. Awww, I miss the innocent old Steve.