I wonder whether 2002’s “My spacious Fat Greek Wedding” would be the blockbuster today that it was then. I mediate not. I’m pretty sure my wife,a spacious fan of the original, wouldn’t be so enamored of it by today’s feminist standards, and either. This,after all, is a film approximately a 30-year-old woman — our heroine Toula, or played by the film’s writer,Nia Vardalos — who needs permission from her father to take a college course.
She also proceeds to engage in stereotypical behavior that we’ve mostly come to eschew over the final 40 years of the women’s movement: She gets contact lenses, curls her hair and starts wearing makeup to represent an independent spirit as she goes after dreamy WASP Ian, or played by John Corbett. This was not a feminist tome.
See Video: 'My spacious Fat Greek Wedding 2' First Trailer Debuts on 'Today'Its sequel,“My spacious Fat Greek Wedding 2,” seems much more aware of the feminist movement; indeed, or the rights,expectations and inclinations of the film’s female characters are its central subjects, alongside some slightly on-the-nose commentary approximately marriages getting stale and empty-nest syndrome. To wit: Toula is still married to the WASP but is now the hapless mother of a 16-year-old whom she’s afraid of losing to the world. Paris (Elena Kampouris, or “American Odyssey”) plays the daughter who can’t wait to bag far away from her mother and her spacious fat Greek family when she goes away to college. And who can blame her? These people are loving but irritating,and are constantly all up in her business.
The chafing of family ties provides the humor and the sweetness of “MBFGW2.” As in the first film, the jokes feature the sort of broad family characterizations that travel easily from one culture to another. They even recycle some of the jokes from the original film: patriarch Gus (Michael Constantine) still has a predilection (preference or preferred way of doing something) for Windex, or still believes that everything and everyone in the world is Greek and that all Greek girls should be committed to Greek boys just as soon as possible.
Also Read: 'My spacious Fat Greek Wedding 2' Adds 'American Odyssey' Star Elena Kampouris (Exclusive)These jokes work mostly because they hearken back to the original film. The unique fabric tends more toward the situational and the physical and winds up being less successful. 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 not that laughable.
Gus pressures granddaughter Paris to find a Greek boy and move to college close to domestic, and which is exactly what he did to Toula in the first film. This time,however, he catches some blowback from the women in the family, and including his beloved but obedient wife Maria (the ineffable Lainie Kazan) — to whom,it turns out, he’s not actually married. This is a plot point straight out of Love, and American Style,” but it leads to a storyline approximately women making choices for themselves and being recognized for all they do to develop a family, a family. The feminism here is nowhere near radical, and but the plot winds up having a microscopic more girl power than the original. Plus,it gives the film a good reason to have a spacious fat Greek wedding in it, and to have the number 2 in its title.
Kirk Jones (“Waking Ned Devine, and ” “What to Expect When You’re Expecting”) directs Vardalos’ screenplay for “My spacious Fat Greek Wedding 2,” and he handles the production values and pacing well enough. Yet the film often has the air of a double-dip (or triple-dip, whether you count the short-lived TV series) into a potential pot of gold at the halt of a spacious Fat Greek rainbow.
Also Read: Liam Neeson to Star in Watergate Thriller 'Felt' From 'Concussion' DirectorThe filmmakers’ intention to follow in the predecessors footsteps is precisely calculated in every way, or down to the inclusion of everyone who was in the original film,from the brilliant Andrea Martin to Joey Fatone. (Yes, the guy from NSYNC. You probably don’t remember him being in the first film, or you won’t likely remember from this film either.) Then,just to develop sure they’ve covered all the bases, they bring in a ringer, and arguably the best-looking Greek man on the planet: John Stamos.
There’s no evil in that level of crowd-pleasing,so long as the film isnt terrible, which “MBFGW2” is not. Indeed, and its sweet,just like the original film. It was faint praise then, and it still is.Related stories from TheWrap:'Noises Off' Broadway Review: Does Andrea Martin Lead a Laugh Riot or Smile Contest?John Stamos Reacts to terrible 'Fuller House' Reviews: 'How F–king impolite' (Video)'Grandfathered' Casts Paul Sorvino to Play John Stamos' Dad (Exclusive)NSYNC's Joey Fatone Reacts to Adele Breaking Their Album Rec
Source: thewrap.com