My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3
Nia Vardalos turns her fresh indie hit into a batch of stale baklava.
Close Quarters: Elena Kampouris, Elias Kacavas, Andrea Martin, Nia Vardalos, Louis Mandylor, and John Corbett
Image courtesy of Focus Features
When My Big Fat Greek Wedding debuted in 2002, it went on to become one of the biggest indie hits of all time. Against a budget of $5 million, it grossed the big fat sum of nearly $369 million worldwide. The story behind the story is something of industry legend, in league with the origin of Stallone’s Rocky. Unable to get more than two lines on a sitcom, Nia Vardalos turned her family stories into a screenplay. Unable to get anyone to read it, she mounted a one-woman stage show in LA. Among the audience was Rita Wilson, who had her own Greek family and non-Greek husband (Tom Hanks). Wilson helped shepherd the material to the screen as producer, but the struggles only continued from there. At one point, the studio wanted an established star like Marisa Tomei or Sandra Bullock as Toula. There were numerous nos to overcome at every stage, from financing to distribution. On release, word of mouth eventually won out, turning the film into a resounding critical and financial success. A short-lived sitcom and satisfactory sequel followed in the intervening years. Now, twenty-one years after tying the knot with audiences, there’s not much spark left in the marriage.
A lot has happened to the Portokalos family since 2016’s vow renewal in My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2. Though the threequel arrives seven years after daughter Paris (Elena Kampouris) went off to New York for college, as it turns out, she’s only just finished her freshman year. The family has endured the loss of its patriarch Gus (actor Michael Constantine passed away in 2021), mother Maria (Lanie Kazan) is developing Alzheimer's, their son Nick (Louis Mandylor) has been divorced twice over, Ian (John Corbett) has lost his father as well (actor Bruce Gray passed away in 2017), and Aunt Voula, well, she’s still fabulous, as is the scene-stealing Andrea Martin that embodies her. At the arrival of an invitation to a family reunion, Toula (Nia Vardalos) rallies the Portokalos clan to fulfil a promise to return her dad’s journal to his childhood friends in Greece. Soon the family is off to the airport for some ouzo and ‘Opa!’
Unlike previous entries in the franchise, Vardalos not only writes and stars, but also picks up the director's megaphone. As a result, the once empowered Toula ends up feeling like an afterthought, relegated to reigning everyone in. Promising story allusions of grappling with grief and growing apart are glossed over in favour of well-worn hokum–frequently at Toula’s expense. Rather than using comedy to reveal character, the hijinks rely on winks and nods to previous instalments. Could Nick’s obsession with grooming and looking younger be a result of coming to terms with the loss of his father and an acknowledgement of his own mortality? Probably, but it’s solely used as a gross-out gag. Disjointed scenes suggest things left on the cutting room floor, or perhaps a script that wasn’t concrete to begin with. It’s been seven years since cinemas saw the sequel, so why does Vardalos choose to set the story only one year later? It’s head-scratching considering the bookend potential of Toula stepping into a mother of the bride role—perhaps at a destination wedding in Greece. That’s not the movie Vardalos has made and there’s a lot within the story she has chosen to tell that just doesn’t add up. Among the ruins, Vardalos occasionally captures some of that Greek magic, but by the time the deus ex machina (yes, the root of that word is Greek) and compulsory celebration rolls around, even the cast seems tired of the same old song and dance. Smash your plate and skip this serving of moose-caca.
CHAD KENNERK
Cast: Nia Vardalos, John Corbett, Elena Kampouris, Gia Carides, Joey Fatone, Louis Mandylor, with Lainie Kazan, and Andrea Martin.
Dir Nia Vardalos, Pro Rita Wilson, Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman, Screenplay Nia Vardalos, Ph Barry Peterson, Ed Annette Davey and Craig Herring, Music Stephanie Economou, Costumes Timothy A. Wonsik.
Gold Circle Films/HBO/Playtone-Focus Features.
91 mins. USA. 2023. Rel: 8 September 2023. Cert. 12A.
