My Big Fat Greek Wedding about 30-something Toula Portokalos wanting more out of life than getting married, having Greek babies and feeding everyone was eminently relatable. We, who are veterans of big fat Indian weddings, know all about well meaning uncles and aunties who throw many spanners in the works. And food as a metaphor for caring and conversation, is also familiar.
The film based on a play by Nia Vardalos who drew on her experience, was a sleeper hit when it came out in 2002 and now 14 years later when you least expect it, bang comes the sequel. After waiting for so long to make a sequel, one would have expected something better.
My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 has its funny moments but doesn’t come together to form a cohesive whole. Toula and her non-Greek husband Ian are having trouble to rekindle the romance in their lives. Paris, their daughter, wants to get away from her family and applies to college far, far away.
Toula’s father wants to prove he is descended from Alexander the Great. There is a big fat Greek wedding in the mix as Toula’s parents realise the priest did not sign their marriage certificate and so they need to get married again. All the cast including Vardalos as Toula, John Corbett as Ian, Lainie Kazan as Toula’s mother and Michael Constantine as Toula’s father reprise their roles.
The film is not unwatchable but then it is not worth climbing every mountain and fording every stream to watch either. You might as well wait for it to come on telly—the movie feels like a loosely strung together sitcom anyway.
