"My Big Fat Greek Wedding"

Feb. 18th, 2003 at 5:37 PM

I don't know why the movie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" was so popular. I tried to watch it today on DVD, and ended up turning it off before it was finished. Okay, so admittedly my patience lately isn't what it once was, but I found this movie almost unrelentingly annoying and repetitive.

Oh, look. They're Greek. And they eat a lot. That's so funny!

Oh, look. They're Greek. And they nag a lot. That's so funny!

Oh, look. They're Greek. And they have a lot of kids. That's so funny!

Oh, look. They're Greek. And they're overtly patriarchal. That's so funny!

Oh, look. They're Greek. And they talk about Greece all the time. That's so funny!

Oh, look. Boobs. That's so funny!

Lather. Rinse. Repeat. Repeat many many many times.

The only character who had any depth at all was the main character, and that was due primarily to her thoughts presented in voice-over (almost always a cheap trick).

John Corbett was cute (as always), but he was the one-dimensional (and cliched) country-club boy who's "spicing" up his life by falling in love with an ethnic girl. Maybe if he'd moved to Alaska and gotten a job as a radio host ... nah ... even that wouldn't have saved this movie, in my opinion.

Ah well. Disappointment. At least there's a new Buffy episode tonight.

Current Mood: disappointed

Comments

( 6 comments — Leave a comment )

wbahner

Feb. 18th, 2003 06:08 pm (UTC)

I thought it was OK.

Good, but not nearly as funny as everyone was making it out to be....

Link | Reply | Thread

kimberly_a

Feb. 18th, 2003 06:24 pm (UTC)

Re:

Quite a few people (including my mother, which should have been my first clue) actively urged me to see it. I clearly missed something.

Link | Reply | Parent | Thread

lulabellafp

Feb. 18th, 2003 06:20 pm (UTC)

I didn't even want to see that movie for that very reason. Also: what was such a big deal about its success? Or, let me rephrase the question: what was such a big deal about the success of a supposedly "independent" movie that was produced by Rita Wilson [Tom Hanks' wife, and Friend of Steven Speilberg]?

Red lights went off in my brain when I heard my cousin's wife describe it to us at Christmas as "a movie that you'll really relate to, especially if you're from an ethnic background." Um, there are a lot of things wrong with that sentence, but what it comes down to is this: the "ethnic" is the "other" that Edward Said and Toni Morrison talk about so extensively.

Link | Reply | Thread

kimberly_a

Feb. 18th, 2003 06:35 pm (UTC)

Yep, that was one of the primary things that kept annoying me over and over and over again. (Oh, wait, was I ever not annoyed? I'm not sure.) My first boyfriend's family was *very* Russian. As in, they spoke primarily Russian in the house, and I could barely understand their English. They ate a lot of Russian food. But ... you know what? They were also *people*. They weren't *just* Russian.

A large percentage of my friends are Jewish, but they don't walk around wearing yamulkes and dancing the horah and eating matzoh ball soup all day every day.

Movies that "other-ise" any particular group to the extent I perceived in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" are not doing the world any favors. It just makes it easier for people to identify someone as "different from me". Bleh.

Link | Reply | Parent | Thread

lulabellafp

Feb. 18th, 2003 06:55 pm (UTC)

Yep. I was all set to launch into a diatribe on otherness and subjectivity and then I thought, hmmm... I have a headache, and I'm sure she's bound to have the same thoughts, too. :D

Link | Reply | Parent | Thread