My Big Fat Greek Wedding was both a critical and commercial success, grossing over $360,000,000 worldwide and earning Nia Vardalos an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay. This meant that the sequel, My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2, had a lot to live up to – but unfortunately it just didn't quite hit the mark.
My main issue with this film was the lack of direction, character development or plot structure. Just like Toula's loud and outrageous family, there was just too much going on. Firstly, there's the newest addition to the family – Toula and Ian's daughter Paris (played by the angsty Elena Kampouris). She's already feeling the pressure from her Papou to find herself a nice Greek boy and settle down. Deeply embarrassed by her very Greek family, she also is a senior in high school and looking to go to college, but she's faced with the dilemma of going to Northwestern University (meaning she will stay close to her cringe-worthy relatives), or living out her dream at NYU. I'm sure you can guess which one she'd prefer!
Secondly, there's Toula and Ian's so-called issues out of the blue, Aunt Voula suggests that they go on a date to reignite their marriage (even though there had been no previous signs of tension). They do so, and suddenly Ian resents Toula for not paying him enough attention. I didn't realise that he needed the meddling Aunt Voula to point this out for him, but there you go.
And then to top it all off, there is the abundance of other short-lived, whacky, out-of- the-blue (or all of the above) scenarios that the rest of the characters encounter, including:
All-in-all, this film was trying to hard to be what the first movie effortlessly pulled off and it resulted in the jokes being forced and predictable and the stereotypes being more overdone than a tough lamb souvlaki. This proves that sometimes, a classic success needs to remain just that and not rehashed for the sake of it in order to try to force history to repeat itself.
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My main issue with this film was the lack of direction, character development or plot structure. Just like Toula's loud and outrageous family, there was just too much going on. Firstly, there's the newest addition to the family – Toula and Ian's daughter Paris (played by the angsty Elena Kampouris). She's already feeling the pressure from her Papou to find herself a nice Greek boy and settle down. Deeply embarrassed by her very Greek family, she also is a senior in high school and looking to go to college, but she's faced with the dilemma of going to Northwestern University (meaning she will stay close to her cringe-worthy relatives), or living out her dream at NYU. I'm sure you can guess which one she'd prefer!
Secondly, there's Toula and Ian's so-called issues out of the blue, Aunt Voula suggests that they go on a date to reignite their marriage (even though there had been no previous signs of tension). They do so, and suddenly Ian resents Toula for not paying him enough attention. I didn't realise that he needed the meddling Aunt Voula to point this out for him, but there you go.
And then to top it all off, there is the abundance of other short-lived, whacky, out-of- the-blue (or all of the above) scenarios that the rest of the characters encounter, including:
- Aunt Voula's constant complaining about all of her physical ailments - Maria and Gus' upcoming nuptials (as they have realised they have never been 'officially' married) - Gus claiming he is a direct descendant of Alexander the Great - The all-American judgemental (and borderline racist) women who are eventually put in their place and are suddenly very accepting of their eccentric, ethnic neighbours - Why Angelo (played by ex-NSYNC member Joey Fatone) has been single for so long (I won't spoil it for you but it rhymes with 'romosexual')
All-in-all, this film was trying to hard to be what the first movie effortlessly pulled off and it resulted in the jokes being forced and predictable and the stereotypes being more overdone than a tough lamb souvlaki. This proves that sometimes, a classic success needs to remain just that and not rehashed for the sake of it in order to try to force history to repeat itself.
motherofpopcorn.wordpress.com