2002's My Big Fat Greek Wedding was one of the more surprising box office blockbusters of the 21st century. It arrived with little hype but then rode positive word-of-mouth and steadily accumulated a fortune in theaters. 21 years later, the filmmakers have returned to the well with My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3.
Toula (Nia Vardolos), the daughter of Greek immigrants, and her non-Greek husband Ian (John Corbett) take their teenage daughter (Elena Kampouris) and a coterie of other family members to Greece to visit her late father's hometown.
One reason I was never much of a fan of the original Wedding was because there was little to no conflict or drama even by the standards of romantic comedies. It was benign and inoffensive, but the comedy never elicited more than a few chuckles. In that regard, it felt like the precursor to modern Hallmark channel movies. The same is true of the new film. It never annoys or offends and the Greek scenery is beautiful to look at, but the jokes are usually telegraphed far in advance and even mild conflict between characters remains at a minimum. It feels like a 30 minute sitcom episode stretched to 90.
But since my feelings towards the third Wedding mirror the ones I had for the first, I suspect that those of you who did enjoy the original film will likely enjoy yourselves here.
