The monthly ritual time arrived again. After packing our demanding 2 year old off to her grandparents for the night, my wife and I sparred over who would have the casting vote on which film we would see at the cinema that night. After a couple of tantrums (I kid you not), my wife won, and I grudgingly went along to see this new release, knowing fine well that my wife's motivation to see this film was John Corbett (aka Aidan from Sex & The City), and it was only after she agreed not to drool at the sight of him, that I left the house!
I sat in the cinema and was looking forward to being able to say "well you chose to see it", when my wife complained how poor it was on the way home......Oh how wrong was I!
The film started by introducing us to 30 year old Greek spinster (For)Toula Portokalos (Nia Vardalos). A spinster at 30?? Surely not I hear you cry! Well 30 and unmarried is near enough unheard of in the Greek culture. As Tula is quick to tell us, "Greek women are expected to marry good Greek boys, make lots of Greek babies, and cook for everyone until the day they die". Tula could never be described as a beauty..she is very plain, and not on the lookout for a man, so feels that she has nobody to impress, and her confidence is hardly boosted by her father who has been continually telling her since age 15 that she should get married soon as she is looking old.
Tula lives at home with her parents and Turkish hating mad grandmother, in a house modelled
on the Parthenon, and she works in the family restaurant 'Dancing Zorba's', along with her father Gus (Michael Constantine), who thinks that Windex can cure any skin ailment known to man and that every word you can give him is derived from a Greek word, and her mother Maria (Lainie Kazan), and brother Nico (Louis Mandylor) who is the chef and a budding artist. Her older sister Athena has followed tradition by marrying young and becoming a baby machine. Tula dreams of making a better life and going to college, but she knows that her father will disprove so she keeps putting off the idea.
Whilst at work one day, she encounters Ian Miller (John Corbett), a high school teacher who meets his friend in the restaurant. Toula is mesmerised by him, and makes a complete fool of herself in front of him. It is soon after this that Toula persuades her father to agree to let her enrol in college. Determined not to repeat her high school torture of being the 'plain girl', Toula embarks on a remarkable transformation. She dyes her hair, changes the style, and gets contact lenses, and whilst she could never be described as a beauty, she is certainly more pleasing on the eye.
At college, she becomes very confident, and her knowledge of computer applications leads to her approaching her eccentric Aunt Voula (Andrea Martin) who owns a travel agent, as well as a launderette. She and Maria persuade Gus to allow Toula to work at the travel agent in a hilarious scene.
Whilst at the travel agent, Ian sees Toula and whilst trying to get her attention, finds himself the victim of a hilarious beating. A beating hilarious???? I promise you that this one is. Toula agrees to a date, but voices her worries to Ian that their relationship will be frowned upon, as he is not Greek, and the differences in their families are vast.
Now I am sure all of you reading this will have had to meet a prospective partners' family once or twice, and vice versa, so anyone who has embarassing parents will be able to empathise with Toula. When Ian proposes, the tensions rise, especially when the two very different families meet and struggle to reconcile their differences for the sake of their children, which seems unthinkable, especially when a 'quiet meal' means every living relative within 100 miles for the Portokalos', whilst the Millers are country club lovers, and very very quiet in comparison......until they are introduced to Ouzo by Aunt Voula.
Ian also has to make changes, the most important is that he must be baptised into the Greek Orthodox church, with Toula's cousin Nicky (and her chest!) acting as godmother. This scene will go down in the classics, as watching Corbett flail around in a paddling pool at the front of the church (all will become clear when you watch the film), is side splittingly funny.
Nia Vardolos is not only the star and the narrator of the film, it was also her idea, based on her one woman show, and she is the one who wrote the script. She never thought that the film would be released until Rita Wilson (Mrs Tom Hanks) saw Vardolos' one woman show and loved it so much she persuaded Tom to produce the film through their studio, Playtone. In this film, she is tremendous, and carries off the humour perfectly, whilst still making you empathise with her character, and quite surprisingly, she makes Corbett take a back seat, and even my wife agreed that he could have done with a haircut.
Gus should really be a dislikable character, especially as he tries to be such a controlling chauvanist, but Constantine plays him as a carign father whose intentions are sometimes misunderstood, and that is mainly down to the fact that he just so fiercely proud to be Greek. The only woman in the cast who threatens to upstage Vardolos, is the amusing Andrea Martin as Aunt Voula, whose facial expressions and continual nagging of the menfolk stole the show.
Joey Fatone from pop group N'Sync plays cousin Angelo, who enjoys teaching Ian Greek phrases which embarrass Ian who does not know their true meanings, and in a recent interview with John Corbett, I heard him complimenting Fatone on his acting, but I think he must have been watching another film, as Fatone has less than 3 lines, and hardly has the chance to show off any hidden ability he may or may not have.
This may seem like a very tried and tested storyline which could appear quite stale, but director Joel Zwick puts a new slant on the film, and freshens up some old cliches, making them amusing, intelligent and believeable.
Running at 95 mins, which seemed like it went by in a flash, the film is a laugh a minute, whilst still dealing with a serious subject. it has taken America by storm, so much so that CBS have decided to turn it into a comedy series, with 7 half hour shows planned as we speak, with another 6 still being negotiated, with Vardolos still in the starring role, with her parents and brother also expected to feature played by the same cast members, whilst Vardolos will also taking some co-producing credits, along with Rita Wilson. I hope Channel 4 buy the rights to show it over here.
The film only cost $5 million to make, and is quickly heading towards box office receipts of $200 million, which I am sure will be helped by healthy audience figures here.
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Comedy - Director: Richard Boden, Mandie Fletcher, Martin Shardlow - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Hugh Laurie, Miranda Richardson, Stephen Fry, Brian Blessed, Tim McInnerny, Tony Robinson, Rowan Atkinson
Comedy - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring: Tessa Peake-Jones, Buster Merryfield, David Jason, Nicholas Lyndhurst
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