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My Big Fat Greek Wedding

March 27, 2012 by · Comments Off on My Big Fat Greek Wedding 

My Big Fat Greek Wedding, My Big Fat Greek Wedding is a 2002 Canadian and American romantic comedy film written by and starring Nia Vardalos and directed by Joel Zwick. The film is centered on Fotoula “Toula” Portokalos (Nia Vardalos), a middle class Greek American woman who falls in love with a non-Greek upper middle class “White Anglo-Saxon Protestant” Ian Miller (John Corbett).

At the 75th Academy Awards, it was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. A sleeper hit, the film grossed $241.4 million in North America, despite never reaching number one at the box office during its release (the highest-grossing film to accomplish this feat).

Fotoula “Toula” Portokalos (Nia Vardalos) is going through an early midlife crisis. At thirty, she is the only woman in her family who has “failed”. Her family expects her to “marry a Greek, make Greek babies, and feed everyone until the day [she] die[s].” Instead, Toula is stuck working in the family business, a restaurant. In contrast to her “perfect” sister, Athena (Stavroula Logothetis), Toula is frumpy and cynical. She fears she’s doomed to be stuck with her life as it is.

At the restaurant, she briefly sees Ian Miller (John Corbett), a handsome school teacher. This event, combined with an argument with her father, Gus (Michael Constantine), motivates her to begin taking computer classes at a local college. She also gets contact lenses, wears her hair curly, and begins to use makeup. Maria, her mother (Laine Kazan), and her aunt Voula (Andrea Martin) then contrive a way to get Gus to allow her to work at Voula’s travel agency.

Toula feels much better in her new job, especially when she notices Ian hanging around looking at her through the window. They finally introduce themselves and begin dating. Toula keeps the relationship secret from her family until some weeks later when Gus finds out. He throws a fit because Ian is not Greek, but Ian and Toula continue to see each other against Gus’s wishes. Ian proposes marriage to her, she accepts, and he agrees to be baptized in the Greek Orthodox Church to be worthy of her family.

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