MARCH 29, 2016
Here’s a great idea for family time at the movies. Offer to take your mom to see “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2” at the local multiplex. As the lights go down, tell her you have to take an important phone call in the lobby. Walk down the hall and duck into another theater that’s actually showing a good movie. Get back to the other theater in time for the final credits, and you’ll find your mom with her eyes nearly tearful as she says “That was so nice.” It’s a win/win for both of you. But mostly for you.
The first “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” originally released in 2002 by tiny (at the time) distributor IFC, was originally set for a limited release, which then usually meant a couple of weeks in theaters followed by a DVD a few months later. But something happened. Audiences discovered it, and not only did they like it, they loved it and told their friends. Produced for a mere $6 million, the film grossed over $241 million just in the United States (and over $368 million worldwide), making it the most successful independent feature ever made, the most successful romantic comedy ever made and the highest-grossing film ever that never made it to #1 on the box-office charts, a record that still stands today. It played for months and months in theaters, climbing as high as #2 in his fourth month of release.
I wasn’t an enormous fan of the first one, but I did admire its independent spirit and the fact that the film’s characters felt like they were based on real people. There was an appealing earnestness in the script by its writer/star Nia Vardarlos (which earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay), and any film that can successfully break through the big studios’ stranglehold on the nation’s multiplexes earns a big thumbs-up from me.
But what seemed fresh 14 years ago comes off as a bit stale today. Yes, the characters in the first film were archetypes, but Vardarlos brought just enough quirk and individuality to each one that they came off as folks we hadn’t seen onscreen before. Unfortunately, in the new film, she takes those character quirks that got big laughs before and repeats them often enough that it comes off as schtick. Film comedy has moved on since 2002, but “Greek Wedding 2” simply recycles the humor of 2002, not withstanding a zoomba reference or two. And even a surprise gay outing is treated as if it were 15 years ago, if not longer.
For the record, Toula (Vardarlos) is still working in the family restaurant owned by her father Gus (88 year-old Michael Constantine, still stealing scenes) and her mother Maria (Lainie Kazan), and Toula still feels obligated to come to the rescue of her extended family, much to the chagrin of her non-Greek husband Ian (a snoozy John Corbett) and her daughter Paris (Elena Kampouris), who is deciding whether she wants to attend a college far away from the family’s Chicago home.
One would assume that it is Paris who is about to have a big fat Greek wedding, but it is actually her grandparents Gus and Maria, who discover that their wedding certificate in the old country was never officially signed, so they aren’t legally married. The elderly couple then has to ponder whether they really want to be wed to each other. From there, as they say, hijinks ensue.
The acting can be generously be described as broad, particularly Andrea Martin as Paris’ Aunt Voula, who has yet to find a situation in which she could not meddle. Vardarlos’ screenplay won’t get an Oscar nomination this time, and the direction by Kirk Jones (“Waking Ned Devine”) is strictly by the numbers.
When “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2” shows up on airplanes (probably within a few days from now), you can do far worse for something to pass the time. But if you’re stuck in a theater, keep in mind what I said about taking a phone call in the lobby.
GRADE: C-
