My Big Fat Greek Wedding

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Wedding</div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="501" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 147 WIDTH="495"><div> <IMG SRC="1414628c0.jpg" border=0 width="98" height="140" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"><B>DVD <script language="JavaScript"> function popUp(URL,NAME) { amznwin=window.open(URL,NAME,'location=yes,scrollbars=yes,status=yes,toolbar=yes,resizable=yes,width=380,height=450,screenX=10,screenY=10,top=10,left=10'); amznwin.focus();} document.open(); document.write("<a href=javascript:popUp('http://buybox.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=reelmoviecriticc&link_code=xsc&creative=23424&camp=2025&path=/dt/assoc/tg/aa/xml/assoc/-/b00006fmuw/reelmoviecriticc/ref=ac_bb1_,_amazon')><img src=http://rcm-images.amazon.com/images/G/01/associates/remote-buy-box/buy1.gif border=0 alt='Buy from Amazon.com' ></a>"); document.close(); </script> <noscript> <form method="POST" action="http://buybox.amazon.com/o/dt/assoc/handle-buy-box=b00006fmuw"> <input type="hidden" name="asin.b00006fmuw" value="1"> <input type="hidden" name="tag-value" value="reelmoviecriticc"> <input type="hidden" name="tag_value" value="reelmoviecriticc"> <input type="image" name="submit.add-to-cart" value="Buy from Amazon.com" border="0" alt="Buy from Amazon.com" src="http://rcm-images.amazon.com/images/G/01/associates/add-to-cart.gif"> </form> </noscript>  </B></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="592" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 20 WIDTH="588"><div> <B>My Big Fat Greek Wedding   </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFCC66" FACE="Wingdings 2" ><B>êê</B></FONT><B> ½   Stars   Rated  PG</B></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="588"><div> Reviewed by Shelley Cameron</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="588"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="19" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="588" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 23 WIDTH="588"><div> Opa!  Ooops.</div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="593" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 38 WIDTH="293"><div>  Nia Vardalos  as  Toula Portokalos Lanie Kazan as  Maria Portokalos </div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> John Corbett as Ian Miller</div> <div> Michael Constantine as Gus Portokalos</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="293"><div> Director: Joel Zwick</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="293"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="19" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="293" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> <div> Evidently, this film is a comedy about the courtship and wedding of Greek American Toula Portokalos (Nia Vardalos) and WASP Ian Miller (John Corbett). Unfortunately, in its effort to be funny and at the same time make a comment about cross-cultural communication in American culture, it doesn't quite succeed at either.  It not only fails to probe the complexities of this in any meaningful way; it manages to make everyone in both families into stereotypes.  It means well but drowns in its own cliches.  </div> <bR> <div> Toula spends her first 30 years feeling like a chubby, unattractive, outsider.  She has felt teased and tormented since childhood largely because her immigrant parents proudly and ostentatiously display their Greek heritage.  Although thoroughly comfortable but unhappy in her frumpy life, one day she transforms herself totally into someone self-assured and attractive, as if acting out a post-hypnotic suggestion.  The impetus for this is a nice looking guy who comes into her family's restaurant one day for coffee and leaves her gaping speechlessly at him.  Shortly after her magic metamorphosis, she runs into him again at her aunt's travel agency.  They secretly rendezvous because although she is a 30-year-old woman living in cosmopolitan Chicago, she can't tell her parents she has a date.  </div> <bR> <div> We are then expected to then believe that once her cover is blown with her parents and the cat is out of the bag, all that remains is to manage to get through the mine field of the wedding preparations and they will live happily ever after.  There is no one who escapes looking like a caricature.  Ian is a sweet but dim-witted teacher who is so doltish he can't even choose his own best man.  This is the same man strong enough to reject the family tradition of becoming a rich north shore lawyer.  This is the same man savvy enough to want something more out of a relationship than a woman who looks like all the other women?  Hello?  </div> <bR> <div> Lanie Kazan was born to play Greek or Jewish or stage mothers and she does a credible job but can't rise above the lame script.  Ditto Michael Constantine.  Ian's parents by contrast are wooden and have nothing to say to each other, to Toula or to Ian.  The opportunities for an insightful moment such as when Ian's mother brings her pathetic bundt cake to share with Toula's huge family (half of them named Nick), are squandered by the heavy-handed treatment of the irony.  This movie relies too heavily on sight gags like hideous wedding dresses and enormous volumes of food and capsizes from the weight. </div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="592" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 20 WIDTH="588"><div> Shelley Cameron <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFCC66" FACE="Symbol" >Ó</FONT> 2002</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="588"><div> <A HREF="mailto:shlcameron@aol.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:shlcameron@aol.com"><U><U>Shelley@reelmoviecritic.com</U></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>