1Big Fat Greek Wedding (2024)

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What is the message of My Big Fat Greek Wedding? ›

My Big Fat Greek Wedding is unique in that it portrays Toula as discovering that she cannot completely abandon her family and its way of life despite her love for Ian. Luckily for her, Ian is himself completely pliable and agrees to do whatever it takes to get Toula's family to accept him and their love.

The Canadian actress based the film on her own big Greek family and marriage to a non-Greek man. “When I started to write My Big Fat Greek Wedding, all I did was write down everything that had ever happened to me,” Vardalos said on ABC News' 20/20.

"My dad believed in only two things: That Greeks should educate non-Greeks about being Greek, and that any ailment from psoriasis to poison ivy could be cured with Windex," Toula says, as the camera zooms in on Gus noticing a pimple on his hand, which prompts him to aggressively spray it with a bottle of Windex.

The jokes fall flat, the plot is extremely weak, and the editing is so uncomfortable. Unfortunately, Nia Vardalos is one of the worst actors in this movie, and relying on better character actors like Andrea Martin does not save this film.

Embrace your ethnicity and cultures. 2. Large family is a blessing and a curse. In one of the first scenes Toula is dreaming and wants to change but doesn't believe she will... but she does!

Conflict can be seen in the scene where her parents find out that she is seeing a man that is not Greek. The major conflict between Ian and Toula was the difference in Ian's spiritual well-being. The different ways that the conflict could be dealt with was a constructive or destructive approach.

Vardalos was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, on September 24, 1962. She is the daughter of Greek-Canadian parents Doreen Christakos, a bookkeeper and homemaker, and Constantine "Gus" Vardalos, a land developer who was born in Kalavryta. She attended St.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding might technically be a romantic comedy, but the 2002 film is just as much an extremely loving and accurate sociological depiction of the daily life of Greek-Americans.

Though the film uses Greek and immigrant stereotypes for humor -- Toula's father just wants her to "get married and make babies," she has a large and boisterous Greek family, etc. -- they're affectionately drawn and are based on the real experiences of screenwriter and lead actress Nia Vardalos.

There is also a very old Greek tradition that requires to “spit” on the Bride and Groom. Of course, no literally. But by pretending that spitting on the happy couple the guest protect them from evil spirits!

What is the secret in My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2? ›

In the most contrived of these dilemmas, it turns out that Toula's parents, Chicago restaurant owners Gus (Michael Constantine) and Maria (Lainie Kazan), aren't actually married after all. The priest back in Greece never signed their marriage certificate 50 years ago.

People introduce Ian's parents to "ouzo", a Greek liqueur, which makes them drunk and queasy after many servings.

Cousins Nikki (Gia Carides) and Angelo (Joey Fatone) show up later, no different than before. The irrepressible Lainie Kazan is back, too, as Toula's widowed mom, Maria, but not for the trip: The character, relegated to two homebound scenes, has been given memory loss. Her descendants lament it. You may wish for it.

When Greeks makes a toast, never say "OPA". They say "YIA MAS", meaning "Cheers" or, more literate, "have a good health". "OPA" is something Greeks say when they dance.

Plot. Thirty-year-old Fotoula "Toula" Portokalos is a member of a large, loud, intrusive Greek family that only wants her to get married and have children. Frumpy and meek, she works in her family's Chicago restaurant, "Dancing Zorba's", but longs to do something more with her life.

There are many interpersonal communication concepts that are used throughout My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Some of the ones that were further explained and analyzed throughout this movie included ethnocentrism, collectivism, stereotypes, compromising, bypassing, breadth and blind self.

Everyone in the Portokalos family worries about Toula (Nia Vardalos). Still unmarried at 30 years old, she works at Dancing Zorba's, the Greek restaurant owned by her parents, Gus (Michael Constantine) and Maria (Lainie Kazan). After taking a job at her aunt's travel agency, she falls in love with Ian Miller (John Corbett), a teacher who is tall, handsome and definitely not Greek. Toula isn't sure which will be more upsetting to her father, that Ian is a foreigner or that he's a vegetarian.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding / Film synopsis

"My Big Fat Greek Wedding" is based on a real life story, and was a stage play before it was a movie. Five years before the first movie in the "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" franchise made it to screens, lead actor and writer Nia Vardalos created a one-woman stage play about her life.

While the comedic treatment of the Greek culture can be seen throughout, in the end, the film emphasizes the accepting and hospitable aspects of the Greeks. Gus's remark about apples and oranges underlines the main idea, no matter what society you belong to you should accept the others and embrace the differences.