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My Big Fat Greek Wedding
IFC Films


8.2

based on 29 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 135 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

Fat Albert

MPAA RATING: PG for sensuality and language

Starring Nia Vardalos, John Corbett, Lainie Kazan, Michael Constantine, Gia Carides, Louis Mandylor, Joey Fatone, and Bruce Gray

A romantic comedy based on the one-woman show written by and starring "Second City" alumna Nia Vardalos.

GENRE(S):	Romance
WRITTEN BY:	Nia Vardalos
DIRECTED BY:	Joel Zwick
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: February 11, 2003 Video: February 11, 2003 Theatrical: April 19, 2002
RUNNING TIME:	95 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Like Vardalos and Corbett, who play their roles with vibrant charm, the film, directed by Joel Zwick, is heartfelt and hilarious in ways you can't fake. It's a keeper.

New Times (L.A.) Gregory Weinkauf

It's light fantasy, but lovely and astute.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

It's not art, this movie. But it's much more amusing than you'd expect.

Slate David Edelstein

There is a long and honorable tradition of broad intermarriage comedies (from the Romans to Abie's Irish Rose to La Cage aux Folles), and this one comes at least shoulder-high to the best. It has been directed by Joel Zwick in a happy, bustling style and acted with madcap ethnic relish.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Not only the best date movie of the year, it's also a -- dare I say it twice -- delightfully charming -- and totally American, I might add -- slice of comedic bliss.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

The results are sometimes too frenetic, the laughs too obvious and predictable. But director Joel Zwick paces things well, and leavens the lunacy with enough seriousness (including a wonderfully poignant exchange between Toula and her brother) to keep the film grounded in the real.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Five minutes into the film, I relaxed, knowing it was set in the real world, and not in the Hollywood alternative universe where Julia Roberts can't get a date.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

With Corbett's laidback persona nicely countering Vardalos's authorial performance, the picture radiates a pure affability that's awfully attractive. My Big Fat Greek Wedding is a very slim movie that succeeds on its own modest terms without pretense or apology.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

It's a buoyant comedy with more warmth and generosity of spirit than anything else in theaters right now.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

Vardalos is a breath of fresh air. After all the little nipped and tucked bunnies we've been seeing onscreen for so long, we forget what real women look like.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

Vardalos made the Portokaloses so funny they'll make your own family seem tame.

New York Post Megan Lehmann

Delivers a sugar rush without the calories.

Village Voice Leslie Camhi

Vardalos's parodies of Greek family values are loving and witheringly hilarious.

TV Guide Ken Fox

Funny without out ever making fun, Vardalos mixes elements of ethnic stand-up, Cinderella romance and Bridget Loves Bernie-style situation comedy, all grounded in something very real.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak

There's such a good-natured heart beating beneath the cliches that it's easy to appreciate the film's willingness to poke gentle fun without a whiff of nastiness or judgment.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Vardalos is of Greek ancestry, which makes stereotyping permissible: She can tease Greeks, just as Italians can safely mock Italians or Jews can poke fun at Jews. But isn't it demeaning to reduce your heritage to clich?s?

USA Today Claudia Puig

Wedding feels a bit anachronistic. Still, not every low-budget movie must be quirky or bleak, and a happy ending is no cinematic sin.

Film Threat Michael Dequina

May not exactly be an innovative film, but it most certainly is a lovable one.

Variety Dennis Harvey

Suffers in ways typical to such adaptations -- what was fresh and flavorful in anecdotal description becomes more familiar and sitcom broad in literal depiction.

The New York Times Dave Kehr

An amiable, offhanded comedy about ethnic identity and last-chance romance.

LA Weekly Chuck Wilson

Vardalos is a pleasing mix of Elaine May and Bonnie Hunt; in other words, she's not a sex kitten, but she's funny and smart.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Watching it is like filling up on baklava: Later you may feel really guilty, but you don't exactly complain while it's going on.

Chicago Tribune Loren King

Predictable and dull.

The New Yorker David Denby

I enjoyed parts of "Wedding," and I'm not about to tell people that they should not have enjoyed it. I'm just afraid that Hollywood will respond to its success by making many more sitcoms in the guise of movies. [23 Sept 2002, p. 98]

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

Stays unrelentingly pleasant, but affability is a poor substitute for laughs or chemistry.

Chicago Reader Joshua Rothkopf

The intentionally broad Greek-American milieu is oddly colorless; having all of the cousins named Nick or Nikki is an OK gag, but once you're past it there's little to hold your attention.

Salon.com Charles Taylor

As Tolstoy observed, all sappy ethnic family comedies are the same. None is sappy in its own way.

Los Angeles Times Gene Seymour

All told, this is going to make passable television. Eventually.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

The wedding, which turns the very concept of ''Greek'' into the sort of hideous, pandering clichés that look rejected from bad Jewish and Italian sitcoms.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.2 (out of 10) based on 135 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Trish B. gave it a10:
I thought it was very entertaining; a definite "feel good movie'.

El Vulturo gave it a0:
Perhaps the worst movie of all time. Awful, awful, awful. I feel like I've been stabbed after watching it. You could write a rather large book about just how terrible this movie is, but for now I'll stick with the 'highlights'. 1. The character of Ian. He's barely human. A walking doormat, bereft of an identity, emotions, or a spine. It's a wonder how he gets out of bed. So your bride to be has a pushy but loving family that won't give her any space. Do you react angrily to their constant demands? Try to instigate a little give and take in the relationship? Gently steer her towars some form of independence? Hell no. You bend over and take it as deep as humanly possible. Baptism? Church Wedding? Completely ignore his own parents? Ditch his best man because he's not Greek? Generally act like a human doormat? No problem! Not once does he get angry, or even question the motives of his new inlaws. So her parents don't want her to marry a non-Greek? His solution, to give up his identity and try to act as Greek as humanly possible. Which brings us to... 2. Stereotypes. Those crazy Greeks! Always with the wackiness! And look at the "ingenious" contrast between their over the top ways and those stiff, uptight Wasps. No doubt hilarity will ensue. One wonders how the write restrained from having Ian have a 'funky' black sidekick who can't help but say "awww helll no" when offered some Ouzo and the one millionth rendition of the Zorba dance. 3. Anti-feminist. The message the family sends to their daughter? You can marry anyone you want (and even then, not really, only if he tries really really really really hard to be as Greek as humanly possible). Not that you can be whatever you want. Or aspire or achieve anything you set your mind to. No. You can marry anyone you want, provided that we still control your life and steamroll your values whenever we choose. At the end of the movie, the father, in a great emotional display, traps his daughter by buying her a house NEXT DOOR. Wow, thanks dad. How unbelievably "out there". 4. It's not funny. If you love "everyone loves Raymond" or "Yes Dear" then you'll love this steaming turd. Witness punchlines you'll see coming a mile off! Enjoy the most tired movie cliches of all time! 5. One dimensional characters. Apart from the female lead, not a single character in this movie felt like a real person. And even then she was only one step above being a spineless automaton. We've got the senile grandma, the prankster brother, the wacky aunt, the overprotective father, the uptight Wasps. I must have missed the scene with the Rabbi, the Irishman, and the thrifty Scot. Conclusion: It's not that you can't have a good comedy based on ethnic and cultural clashes; it's been done a million times before. What's missing here is the clash, any semblance of conflict, or heart, for that matter. You don't have to be making highbrow arthouse cinema to do this well. For example, "Bend It Like Beckham" does much the same thing, only it has the advantage of a good plot, interesting characters and jokes that are actually funny. If I sound bitter, well, guilty as charged. I sat through a nine hour bus ride with this abomination blaring from multiple screens. After the huge box office and all the hype, I was ready to like this film. But it sucks. Terribly, horribly, utterly, completely.

G.M. D.K. gave it a10:
Its one of those rare films that entertains ,and at the end of the movie, leaves you with a big smile for the rest of the year.

Nicole P. gave it a 0:
This movie was the worse movie I have ever seen in my life!!!

Dave C. gave it a 4:
Frightfully bland and painfully mannered romantic comedy. I just couldn't find a any real zest here. The laughs are in short supply and there is no real charm here. Watch Bend It Like Beckham and East Is East instead for a more warm, intelligent and humorous look at interracial relations and give this one a miss.

Gino E. gave it an 8:
This is really a fun movie! It captures a terrific diffrents of diffrent cultures and lets you see that we're all diffrent, but still...just fruit. A bit of a fairytale, but this is how a romantic movie shoud feel like. With a few greats scenes and things you can really learn from. You'll smile all the way through, sometimes even with a tear in you eye.

Stan B. gave it a 0:
Predictable and not funny. It's horrible.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding IFC Films

My Big Fat Greek Wedding
IFC Films