My Big Fat Greek Wedding

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding is a 2002 Romantic Comedy film written by and starring Nia Vardalos, directed by Joel Zwick and produced by Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson. It is based on Vardalos' one woman show and at the 76th Academy Awards, it was nominated for Best Original Screenplay.

Toula Portokalos is a single, voluptuous thirty-year-old Greek woman living with her parents and brother in a close-knit Chicago Greek community and working in the family's Greek restaurant. They even have a Greek statue in their front lawn and proudly painted the Greek flag on their garage door. Deciding to invigorate her life, she breaks out on her own to go to college and start working at a travel agency. She also gets a makeover, taming her wild hair and getting contacts.

In this new lifestyle she meets the handsome, charming but non-Greek Ian Miller. They fall for each other and decide to get married. Her dad does not approve; how could she possibly marry a non-Greek?

Nevertheless, things get sorted out and a huge and very Greek wedding is planned...

Hilarity Ensues.

Noted for being the highest-grossing film to never have a #1 weekend at the box office, the film slowly propelled past $200 million domestically thanks to strong word-of-mouth and gross holding that slowly led to wider releases. One of the reasons behind its success is the sharp indie-film dialogue and avoiding many of the pitfalls that plague other romantic comedies like Hollywood Homely (Nia Vardalos is attractive but not the typical bombshell, giving her makeover more plot relevance than others) and the "teary-eyed breakup due to a misunderstanding."

Followed up by an unmemorable TV sitcom, My Big Fat Greek Life.

Tropes used in My Big Fat Greek Wedding include:

"Oh. Woe to me. Business is bad."

"Costas, Nick, Nick, Nick, Costas..."
"And I am GUS!"

"What do you mean, you don't eat no meat? ... That's okay, I make lamb.

  • Running Gag: Gus Portokalos thinks Windex is the solution to everything.
    • Becomes a bit of a Brick Joke at the end of the film when Ian sprays some on a wedding-day zit and it actually works.
  • Stay in the Kitchen: At the start, Toula's dad believes she should do this. As the film progresses, it appears to be more of "stay in the enclave", and applies to his son as well: Greeks hang out with Greeks, marry Greeks, work at the family business, and so forth.
  • Tactful Translation: Unimpressed with Ian's attempt to wish him a happy Easter ("Cheestro Nasty!"[2]), Gus mutters in Greek, "My people were writing philosophy when your people were still swinging in trees." At Ian's confused look, Toula says, "He likes you."
  • There Are Two Kinds of People in the World: "...Greeks, and everybody else who wish they were Greek."
  • Truth in Television: As any Greek-American who's seen the film will readily tell you. And not only them.
    • Indeed. This movie was a big hit because America is a nation of immigrants meaning that a whole lot of us have wacky ethnic relatives - which ethnicity doesn't really matter because they are ALL like Toula's family, in their own way.
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy: Well, Toula is a female - but the same concept applies.
    • It's hinted that Toula's brother Nick (who apparently wants to study art) has similar issues.
  • When I Was Your Age

Maria Portokalos: "Nicko! Don't play with the food! When I was your age, we didn't have food!"

  1. ↑ G-R-Sigma-Sigma-K
  2. ↑ meant to be Χριστός ἀνέστη (Christos Anesti meaning "Christ is Risen!")
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