dizzle
March 3rd 2003, 12:31 PM
This was an interesting editorial that finally compelled me to watch the movie... it is by Gary DeMar of American Vision (www.americanvision.org)
By Gary DeMar
My wife and I decided to see My Big Fat Greek Wedding after we heard so many great comments about the movie from friends. Our first attempt to see it was on New Year’s day. It was sold out! How was this possible for a movie that came out in June? By this time, the movie should have been playing at the dollar theater and out on video and DVD. We tried again on January 4th. The Atlanta Falcons were playing the Green Bay Packers in a playoff game. Surely the theater would be nearly empty. Wrong. I actually had someone sitting right next to me, elbow to elbow. With almost no advertising, the movie has made an impact on audiences. But of all the reviews I’ve read, no one really gets the movie’s importance.
The movie is based on Nia Vardalos’ one-woman stage play about growing up in a Greek-American family. Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson, who is Greek and had her own big fat Greek wedding, saw the play and decided to turn it into a movie. The movie cost $5 million to make and grossed $228 million in 2002. There are no special effects, no big name actors, unless you count TV actors Michael Constantine (Room 222) and John Corbett (Northern Exposure), and it’s rated PG.
Vardalos stars as Toula Portokalos, the thirty year-old frumpy, disenchanted, and destined-to-be-single hostess at her family’s very Greek restaurant, "Dancing Zorba’s," as in Zorba the Greek. She feels trapped by her stubborn Greek father (Constantine), who believes that a Greek woman should marry a Greek man, breed Greek children, and cook. Toula’s life changes when she becomes smitten with the very non-Greek Ian Miller (Corbett). Could there ever be a WASPier name? She decides that going to college and changing jobs will help her escape her loud family with its old-world ways. She loses the tacky glasses, gets contacts, starts wearing makeup, takes computer classes, and transforms herself into an attractive young woman. But she’s still Greek, from going to Greek school as a child, eating unpronounceable Greek food, having to endure her family roasting a lamb on the front lawn, living in a house that looks like the Parthenon, being Greek Orthodox, and having an extended family that could field three football teams. This is nothing compared to her non-English-speaking grandmother who is still at war with the Turks, her father’s belief that Windex can cure any physical ailment, and an aunt, played wonderfully by Andrea Martin, who says the oddest things at the most inappropriate times.
Ian falls in love with Toula, and she with him, and she keeps him as far away from her odd family for as long as she can. Her father considers any non-Greek a "xenos," a foreigner. It doesn’t help that Ian is a longhaired vegetarian. But Ian insists that he meet her folks. Her father is nonplused to think that his daughter might marry a non-Greek and initially forbids her to marry. Toula wants to elope, but Ian convinces her that she should embrace her family and their seemingly strange ways. He has two cousins, his parents are non-religious country-club liberals. You sense that his life is unfulfilled, that it has no extension. The legacy of his family stops with him. When he dies, the memory of his family dies with him. Ian is baptized in the church, becomes Greek Orthodox, and agrees to a traditional Greek Orthodox wedding. He even wants to learn Greek. (These are some of the funniest scenes.) Ian embraces what Toula wants to reject.
There is a moment at the wedding when the real point of the movie, missed by all the reviews I read, comes to light. As Toula walks down the aisle, the camera pulls up, and we see that on the groom’s side there may be a dozen people. But for Toula, the church is packed with her aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, friends, and even some who are strangers to her. Everyone who made Toula what she is and what she will become are there for her on her special day. The family and old-world traditions she wanted to escape, she finally embraces. Her family may be large, loud, odd, and sometimes obnoxious, but they love her and want the best for her.
That church scene brought to mind the five-point covenant model that I’ve described in Ruler of the Nations and God and Government. It includes these five essentials: Who’s in charge? To whom do I report? What’s the law? What happens if I keep/break the law? Does this outfit have a future? It’s the fifth point that’s exemplified in My Big Fat Greek Wedding. The traditions of family, even if eccentric, church, and lots of aunts, uncles, and cousins almost guarantees success. Ian’s family showed up with twelve. Toula had hundreds. Given time and faithfulness, Toula’s family will inherit the earth.
http://americanvision.org/page.asp?id=78
By Gary DeMar
My wife and I decided to see My Big Fat Greek Wedding after we heard so many great comments about the movie from friends. Our first attempt to see it was on New Year’s day. It was sold out! How was this possible for a movie that came out in June? By this time, the movie should have been playing at the dollar theater and out on video and DVD. We tried again on January 4th. The Atlanta Falcons were playing the Green Bay Packers in a playoff game. Surely the theater would be nearly empty. Wrong. I actually had someone sitting right next to me, elbow to elbow. With almost no advertising, the movie has made an impact on audiences. But of all the reviews I’ve read, no one really gets the movie’s importance.
The movie is based on Nia Vardalos’ one-woman stage play about growing up in a Greek-American family. Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson, who is Greek and had her own big fat Greek wedding, saw the play and decided to turn it into a movie. The movie cost $5 million to make and grossed $228 million in 2002. There are no special effects, no big name actors, unless you count TV actors Michael Constantine (Room 222) and John Corbett (Northern Exposure), and it’s rated PG.
Vardalos stars as Toula Portokalos, the thirty year-old frumpy, disenchanted, and destined-to-be-single hostess at her family’s very Greek restaurant, "Dancing Zorba’s," as in Zorba the Greek. She feels trapped by her stubborn Greek father (Constantine), who believes that a Greek woman should marry a Greek man, breed Greek children, and cook. Toula’s life changes when she becomes smitten with the very non-Greek Ian Miller (Corbett). Could there ever be a WASPier name? She decides that going to college and changing jobs will help her escape her loud family with its old-world ways. She loses the tacky glasses, gets contacts, starts wearing makeup, takes computer classes, and transforms herself into an attractive young woman. But she’s still Greek, from going to Greek school as a child, eating unpronounceable Greek food, having to endure her family roasting a lamb on the front lawn, living in a house that looks like the Parthenon, being Greek Orthodox, and having an extended family that could field three football teams. This is nothing compared to her non-English-speaking grandmother who is still at war with the Turks, her father’s belief that Windex can cure any physical ailment, and an aunt, played wonderfully by Andrea Martin, who says the oddest things at the most inappropriate times.
Ian falls in love with Toula, and she with him, and she keeps him as far away from her odd family for as long as she can. Her father considers any non-Greek a "xenos," a foreigner. It doesn’t help that Ian is a longhaired vegetarian. But Ian insists that he meet her folks. Her father is nonplused to think that his daughter might marry a non-Greek and initially forbids her to marry. Toula wants to elope, but Ian convinces her that she should embrace her family and their seemingly strange ways. He has two cousins, his parents are non-religious country-club liberals. You sense that his life is unfulfilled, that it has no extension. The legacy of his family stops with him. When he dies, the memory of his family dies with him. Ian is baptized in the church, becomes Greek Orthodox, and agrees to a traditional Greek Orthodox wedding. He even wants to learn Greek. (These are some of the funniest scenes.) Ian embraces what Toula wants to reject.
There is a moment at the wedding when the real point of the movie, missed by all the reviews I read, comes to light. As Toula walks down the aisle, the camera pulls up, and we see that on the groom’s side there may be a dozen people. But for Toula, the church is packed with her aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, friends, and even some who are strangers to her. Everyone who made Toula what she is and what she will become are there for her on her special day. The family and old-world traditions she wanted to escape, she finally embraces. Her family may be large, loud, odd, and sometimes obnoxious, but they love her and want the best for her.
That church scene brought to mind the five-point covenant model that I’ve described in Ruler of the Nations and God and Government. It includes these five essentials: Who’s in charge? To whom do I report? What’s the law? What happens if I keep/break the law? Does this outfit have a future? It’s the fifth point that’s exemplified in My Big Fat Greek Wedding. The traditions of family, even if eccentric, church, and lots of aunts, uncles, and cousins almost guarantees success. Ian’s family showed up with twelve. Toula had hundreds. Given time and faithfulness, Toula’s family will inherit the earth.
http://americanvision.org/page.asp?id=78