Romantic Comedies are a staple of 21st century of films. They’re just as large as massive blockbuster films and are incredibly popular too. One of the earliest examples of a little-known classic romantic comedy film that transforms into one of the biggest films in popular culture is My Big Fat Greek Wedding. A film so heavily reliant on not just the slapstick, or the absurdity of the events that occur in the film, but also a film that is very genuine and passionate, and showcases a slice of life moment in romantic comedy films that isn’t usually explored too much!
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The Movie Review
Just like every romantic comedy, My Big Fat Greek Wedding also begins with an interaction. A chance encounter between the two main characters, Ian and Toula, sets up the storyline for the rest of the film. You see, Toula is a Greek woman with a highly traditional Greek lineage and family.
They value their rules and their culture more than anything, and so the first time that Toula falls in love with a non-Greek man, complications were sure to follow. Ian on the other hand, he’s just a guy who is trying his best to find some semblance of respite in his newly found chaotic situation.
My Big Fat Greek Wedding was directed by Joel Zwick, who had previously worked on televisions series such as Family Matters, Full House and Webster. However, his most notable film aside from My Big Fat Greek Wedding is definitely Second Sight, which garnered him enough reputation to make this film. My Big Fat Greek Wedding is an amalgamation of all the elements he’s picked up on while working in series such as Family Matters and Full House. These are shows that revolve around families and feature a variety of different characters, and that is hugely a part of My Big Fat Greek Wedding as well.
The characters in this film are written mainly for comedic purposes, and none of them have quite the depth to them as we would like. You see, back in the early 2000s, romantic comedies didn’t have set standards.
They were just supposed to start with a meet-cute story and turn into a comedy film with sprinkles of romance. However, My Big Fat Greek Wedding truly suffers from that as the characters here seem to have a depth to them, yet it just isn’t explored and is sidelined for more event-based comedy.
The actors’ performances in the film also resonate with that sentiment, as they feel kind of bored and often focused on just doing funny one-liners and slapstick jokes. Don’t get me wrong though, the comedy here is fantastic and actually works, but only for 75% of the time.
The rest of the film is just a boring slog-fest that tries to hammer in a familiar message of growth in the face of adversity and rebellion in the face of tradition that just doesn’t stick well because the characters don’t really face much adversity in their love story.
It doesn’t help that the film is also quite ugly to look at, and it’s definitely not on purpose either. This is a film that had its cinematography done by Jeffrey Jur.
The inexperienced cinematographer hadn’t worked on any big productions before then aside from Dirty Dancing. However, he tries his best to make sure that the film looks like its sparkling for the most part, with an abundance of lighting in every shot to the point it’s hard to look at. The result is a film that is funny, yet bland to look at and lacks a lot of depth.
I enjoyed this movie though, that is something I can’t say for many films of its kind. It had a refreshing sense of humor that didn’t just rely on adult jokes that were written to not be understood by teenagers, and actually focuses on a slice of life comedy format that you can appreciate. Though aside from that particular aspect of the film, neither the performances carry any strong sentiments for me, nor does the production or cinematography do much for the film. It’s a film that is meant to be watched once with your loved ones, enjoyed and then forgotten.
