Guide Rating -

Length: 96 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG for sensuality and language

When the movie opens, Toula Portokalos (Vardalos) is a 30-year-old single woman who lives with her parents in Chicago. She's the seating hostess at Dancing Zorba's, her father's restaurant. In voice-over narration, Toula says, "Nice Greek girls are supposed to do three things in life: Marry Greek boys, make Greek babies, and feed everyone until the day we die."

After taking a college class in computers, Toula changes jobs, going to work for her aunt at Mount Olympus Travel Agency. It's there that Toula attracts the attention of Ian Miller (John Corbett), a handsome high school teacher. They immediately like each other and start dating, but she warns him, "No one in my family has ever gone out with a non-Greek before… I just don't see how this thing's going to work out."

When Toula's father Gus (Michael Constantine) hears that she is dating Ian, he roars his disapproval, "Is he a nice Greek boy? No, no Greek. No Greek! A xeno!" But Toula's mother Maria (Lainie Kazan) gradually brings Gus around to grudging acceptance.

One of my favorite scenes is where Ian's staid, country-club-set parents come over to meet Gus and Maria for the first time. The boisterous Portokalos family is roasting a lamb on a spit in their front yard, and the Millers look bewildered. After being introduced to about 10 guys named Nick, Mrs. Miller presents Maria with a bundt cake she has brought. Maria doesn't know what a bundt is, and she considers the hole in the middle to be a problem. Later, she "fixes" the cake by serving it with a potted geranium inserted in the hole.

I think the screenplay for "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" is terrific. This is not a formulaic romantic comedy. Toula and Ian like each other right away, and they tell each other so. The film takes its time, and we get the pleasure of seeing Toula and Ian fall in love instead of having to assume it somehow happens off camera. And how's this for a refreshingly straightforward proposal scene? Toula and Ian lie in bed in an embrace and have the following exchange:

Ian: "I don't … I don't really know how to say this."
Toula: "What?"
Ian: "Will you marry me?"

I like Nia Vardalos a lot as the movie's leading lady. She's just perfect as the rather ordinary-looking Toula, and she has good romantic chemistry with John Corbett. I also enjoyed the comedic talents of Michael Constantine and Lainie Kazan as Toula's overbearing, but loving, parents.

However, I didn't like everything about "My Big Fat Greek Wedding." Sometimes it's too heavy-handed, and occasionally there's a sitcom feel to the movie. Still, I found the film both funny and romantic, two qualities that seem to me to be missing in most of the recent so-called romantic comedies.

Unfortunately, there are only two bonus materials on the DVD, but one of these is a feature-length commentary track with Nia Vardalos, romantic leading man John Corbett, and director Joel Zwick. This gives you an opportunity to hear writer-actress Nia Vardalos talk about growing up in a Greek family in Winnipeg, being a member of Chicago's "Second City," and marrying a non-Greek man. Vardalos' real-life husband, Ian Gomez, has a small role in the movie as Ian Miller's pal Mike.

Special Features of the DVD:

Full-Screen (1.33:1) and Widescreen (1.85:1)
English 5.1
English 2.0
English Subtitles
French Subtitles
Spanish Subtitles
Greek Subtitles

Feature Commentary by Nia Vardalos, John Corbett, Director Joel Zwick
Cast Biographies