Review of My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 (2016) by Mirza Mohd S — 27 Mar 2016

Back in 2002, a little known comedy film with more or less unknown stars stormed the box office with $368.7 million worldwide on a budget of just around $5 million. The film celebrated ethnic cultures which were quite uncommon back then while giving us a funny but insightful look at another world and yet somehow finding enough commonalities with most of us.

We could all relate to the dynamics of relatives, loneliness, love, and other themes. Marshmallowed with writer/star Nia Vardalos's magnetism, the film was just refreshing. Fourteen years later, along with a failed TV spinoff (My Big Fat Greek Life), in a time where sequels to a decade old film seem common & highly unwanted, writer/star Nia Vardalos and director Kirk Jones somehow find a way to remind us how much we had missed the Greek family, Portokalos.

The original movie ended in a happily-ever-after postscript that didn't suggest a sequel, but the entire family has returned for the sequel and, save for a wrinkle or two, it's as if a day hasn't passed.

Those running gags on Windex and the Greek roots to all words have not stopped running, and the ratio of broad comedy to broader sentimentality is just as laboratory-precise. Vardalos is so keen on bottling that old magic that her character even retreats to the restaurant where she waitressed in humbler times and puts on the old coke-bottle glasses again.

While, the film is not refreshing as the first one and at times uses too many subplots to get the film running, but in the ends packs a punch in the laughs department. The story follows Toula (Nia Vardalos) about eighteen years after the first film ended.

Toula still lives next door to her parents, Gus (Michael Constantine) and Maria (Lainie Kazan) and she's still married to Ian Miller (John Corbett), with whom she is raising their daughter, Paris (Elena Kampouris).

Paris is a 17-year-old high school senior who, like her mother before her, works part-time at the family-owned Greek restaurant, feels smothered by her loud, proud, loving but meddling Greek family, and wants that proverbial "something more" out of her life.

Paris' plan is to go to college - as far away from her Chicago home as the continental U.S. can carry her. Toula is struggling to deal with her only child leaving - and with keeping the passion in her and Ian's busy lives.

Gus discovers that his and Maria's wedding license was not signed by a licensed priest, meaning that they were never legally married. Maria sees this news as an opportunity to make Gus woo her more romantically than he did the first time and show her how much he really cares.

Obviously (given the movie's title), the old man eventually gets with the program and Maria begins planning a big fat Greek wedding - but when the planning hits a major snag, it starts to look like there will be no Greek wedding after all.

This sets the stage for a grand finale which brings together all the film's story lines in ways that are more fun and heartfelt and less predictable than some critics say. Unlike the first film, it didn't feel like a 'Greek' movie for around half of it, it was more of a modern romantic comedy with some Greek comedy and set-pieces here and there.

Structurally the films plot was kinda all over the joint. There were a lot of side- plots in this film and to be honest, there wasn't really a main plot in the film. It kinda jumps around between the romantic stories revolving around Nia, her parents, and her daughter.

Neither one took control of the film and the focus kept swapping throughout. And when the film did depart from the Greek aspect and started heading in the Rom-Com direction they just organized a couple of Greek jokes to remind you that this is still a Greek themed film, and maybe that's where Nia Vardalos writing the film helped it but also kinda let it down.

But what I really loved was just by watching this film you could tell that she loves this property, she loves the character Toula and she really didn't want it to fail, and I love when a film is written with so much passion.

As I mentioned before the comedic aspects of the film were definitely there, and some scenes were at times more funnier than the other. There is a steady flow of comedy throughout the film. These jokes work mostly because they hearken back to the original film.

The new material tends more toward the situational and the physical and winds up being hilarious too. When Gus gets stuck in the tub - naked, obviously - and the guys in the family have to manage an extraction with a strategically placed towel, it's just hilarious.

Toula's Grandma Yiayia (Bess Meisler), is not only alive and kicking, is the funniest of the lot and more developed as a character than in the first film. Its surprising how the original leads Nia Vardalos and John Corbett, along with their onscreen daughter Elena Kampouris don't contribute to the humor like at all, not even once from memory.

They tried, they definitely tried to have them be funny but it just doesn't work at all. Like all of these comedic sequels it would have been incredibly easy to just re-use jokes from the first film and hope people laugh at them as much as they did in 2002.

But this film didn't go with any obvious joke callbacks to the first film, which I loved and more comedy sequels should do. I thought for sure they were going to make Nick and Angelo have Ian say something wrong in Greek, and they didn't which was great.

They went for new material so I kinda admire what they did. It seems the makers are now much more aware of the feminist movement; indeed, the rights, expectations and inclinations of the film's female characters are its central subjects, alongside some slightly on-the-nose commentary about marriages getting stale and empty-nest syndrome.

Director Kirk Jones (Nanny McPhee, Waking Ned Devine) stays true to the spirit of the Vardalos script and legacy, and much of the movie plays like one big inside joke for fans of the original. The filmmakers' intention to follow in the predecessor's footsteps is precisely calculated in every way, down to the inclusion of everyone who was in the original movie, from the brilliant Andrea Martin to Joey Fatone.

Windex make an appearance in each of the three acts, and we get a shot of decorated Bundt cakes, some exaggerated make-up and hair styles, and a steady stream of family members who just can't help their propensity for being loud and up in everyone's business.

Andrea Martin is back as scene-stealer Aunt Voula, and Mama-Yiayia (Bess Meisler) gets her usual "pop-ups" plus a touching moment in the wedding spotlight. Michael Constantine and Lainie Kazan are still amazing.

Louis Mandylor is still hilarious the loud brother. Among the new faces include Alex Wolff (brother of Nat Wolff) as Paris' prom date stands out; and Rita Wilson (also a producer with her husband Tom Hanks) and John Stamos have a couple of scenes as a Greek couple; while the awesome Mark Margolis ("Breaking Bad", "Better Call Saul") appears as Gus' less successful brother from the homeland Greece.

Nia Vardalos and John Corbett underplay their parts well. Elena Kampouris is a bright young actress. On the whole, 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2' isn't perfect, but it's nearly as hilarious and has even more heart than its much-beloved predecessor.