My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 *½ (2016, Nia Vardalos, John Corbett, Michael Constantine, Lainie Kazan, Andrea Martin) – Movie Review

The 52-year-old Nia Vardalos returns as writer and star for this cosy, bland, lame and over-broadly farcical sequel to the 2002 blockbuster comedy My Big Fat Greek Wedding. To be fair, it has some funny lines and amusing situations, and a game, appealing cast.

So where are we 14 years on? Amazingly, Vardalos’s Toula is still working in her parents’ Greek restaurant. She’s still married to the exceptionally nice Ian (John Corbett) but they’re experiencing the usual dull long-term marital issues – she’s not paying him enough attention! – and Toula can’t bear the idea of her daughter Paris (Elena Kampouris) growing up and leaving the nest to go to college. Can she get her to stay home and go to a local uni?

That’s the situation, not much of one, you’ll have to agree, and the contrived and previously much-used plot is Toula’s parents find out they were never officially married, so they might have another wedding – that is if the oddly reluctant mom Maria (Lainie Kazan) deigns to agree to say ‘I do’ to grumpy old man Gus (Michael Constantine). There’s not much doubt ever that we are going to have another Big Fat Greek Wedding, and that Vardalos will try to keep the old couple apart as long as possible till they do, in fact, say  ‘I do’.

With old jokes, too, freshness is not part of the ingredients for My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2, which tries to get by on the skills and charm of its actors, and nearly succeeds. All the actors are worth their salaries, even though they’re almost all giving too much. Andrea Martin’s Aunt Voula, for example, is far too much, bordering on an irritant. It’s hard though to dislike old Bess Meisler as Toula’s Grandma Yiayia. 

Corbett’s modest underplaying is actually quite a relief. Also Vardalos, who remains likeable if underpowered and not very funny. This creaky-at-the-joints old comedy tries to have alternative appeal with a sketchy gay sub-plot involving Joey Fatone as Angelo and youth appeal with its main sub-plot of Paris falling for nice Greek boy Bennett (Alex Wolff). Worryingly, this provides a possible plot for My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3, which could be that of Paris and Bennett, or even Angelo and his partner. No!!

The brother of actor Nat Wolff, Alex Wolff’s father is of Russian Jewish, Polish Jewish, and German Jewish descent. His mother has English, German, some Scottish, 1/256 Portuguese, and distant French, Jersey (Channel Islander), and Welsh, ancestry.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Movie Review

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