Back in 2002, when home theaters were mostly for the rich and famous, people enjoyed going to the movies on a regular basis. One of the mega-hits that year was “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” which is a delightful romantic comedy that broke through the stratosphere at the box office, earning $241,438,308 in North America, and a little bit less than that figure throughout the rest of the world. In the parlance of show business, it was an “indie smash.”
A sequel, “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2,” arrived in 2016, and did acceptable business, but it wasn’t a barn-burner. The same main stars, a marginally different storyline, and the theme of family togetherness, Greek-American style, meant that familiarity led to fatigue. It didn’t quite break a hundred million dollars worldwide in ticket sales.
Somehow, someway, in the summer of “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer,” which renewed the hope of film fans that quality cinema was fighting back, there’s now “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3.” Alas, it’s the Trojan Horse of movies.
Just like the two films before it, “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3" features a romance and a wedding, but it’s not all that big, not fat (there’s surprisingly little food in the movie), and the wedding isn’t fully Greek. It will; however, enlarge the central Portokalos family greatly.
Nia Vardalos, who stars for a third time as Toula, wrote the first two films. This time, she not only wrote the screenplay, but she also directs. Instead of being in Chicago, Toula, her husband Ian (John Corbett), who married in epic fashion in the first film, and a large entourage of her extended family go to Greece to attend a reunion of the extended Portokalos family.
The reunion is the brainchild of a twenty-something named Victory (Melina Kotselou), who happens to be the mayor of the Greek village in the mountains where Gus, Toula’s late father, was raised. He kept an extensive journal and has dozens of important photographs. The plan is to deliver the journal to Gus’s former friends, with whom he grew up. His ashes are also along on the flight.
The problem? So many people have moved away that the only people who seem to be going to the reunion are Toula and her family members. In addition to Ian and Toula’s daughter, Paris (Elena Kampouris), who attends college, there’s Aunt Voula (Andrea Martin), Aunt Theia Freida (Maria Vacratsis), Toula’s brother Nick Portokalos (Louis Mandylor), as well as Paris’ age appropriate former boyfriend, Aristotle (Elias Kacavas). Toula's elderly mother Maria (Lainie Kazan) stays in Chicago, because her memory loss is becoming problematic.
The second film focused on Toula's parents, Gus and Maria, who discover that they were never legally married after finding their marriage certificate, which turned out to be unsigned.
In this third installment, once the Chicago wing of the family arrives in Gus's village, the realization that it’s virtually empty of relatives surprises everyone. Gus’s friends are scattered to the four winds. The task at hand, a joyful reunion, seems as if it will be difficult to accomplish.
It’s here that “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3” really starts to sag. There’s nothing distinctive about the village except a very old olive tree. The movie is not beautifully photographed; therefore, the glorious beauty of Greece’s countryside is an unfortunate afterthought.
The few locals there are, need extended introductions, and we get bogged down in a supposedly comic, but actually cumbersome game of match the names with the faces. This slows down what minimal momentum there is. I won’t reveal a family secret involving Gus. That secret begets another secret. The village matriarch, a curmudgeon for the ages, seems like the specter of doom and would easily be capable of putting curses on anyone who displeases her. Her gruff attitude earns some laughs.
The romantic entanglement that may lead to the supposed “big fat Greek wedding” has to do with secret number two, a young man named Christos, and a Syrian immigrant who calls the village home. She is young and beautiful, and the foundation for a discussion of cross-cultural relationships.
This reminds us the earlier ethnic differences between Toula and Ian. Toula is fully aware that Christos might have to do battle with family members to marry a non-Greek woman. American relative Nick, a very gregarious type, reveals family matters that would best be talked about privately. Here’s another thing about Nick. In a very strange play for laughs, the character prefers to be naked or half-naked throughout the film. I don’t know what Vardalos was thinking when she wrote these scenes, because they are rarely comical, and always quite odd.
As the second-half build-up to what is supposed to be a fun-filled party continues, more new characters are introduced. Elderly Greek men are sought and found. It’s justified if your head is spinning. This parade of relatives seems ceaseless. Lo and behold, one of the newcomers, a cousin, is played by Joey Fatone of the former boy band, NSYNC.
Mayor Victory, who has a secret of her own, also has an idea. With the village filled with so many empty houses, she decides to make news by offering places to live to some immigrants who have arrived in Greece.
Meanwhile, more secrets are spilled. This hasn’t much to do with the street party that’s developing, but Paris lets it be known that she flunked out of her first year of college. Might she want to get back with Aristotle? I will tell you this, except for attending, they aren’t part of any new wedding plans. However, one of the women in the family has a knack for predicting the future, and she called the reunification of the Paris and Aristotle relationship perfectly.
Returning to our attention is the olive tree. And then, back in Chicago, there’s an important conversation about patriarchy and family leadership. It’s been a long, strange journey in a movie that falls a bit flat. You may well be happy you soon have the opportunity to relax.
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