Sure, My Big Fat Greek Wedding was an over-the-top, predictable, and highly stereotypical portrayal of the Greek-American experience. Regrettably, all of the shortcomings of Vardalos' first film are repeated here, and magnified. I found myself wondering, is this Toula, now estranged from her husband, Ian, fleeing to Greece to regain her kefi after a horrible divorce? But maybe that's just because I'm Greek and seeing Greek peopleĪnd places on a huge screen in a Cineplex is always an exciting 'event.' Starved for images of Greekness, Vardalos will forever (however unfairly) be a representative for all things Greek. In fact, at times it was difficult for me to separate her Wedding character, Toula from that of Georgia. The success of My Big Fat Greek Wedding is a moment in film history that can only be compared to the other persistent image (and one that is consciously noted in the film), that of Anthony Quinn as Zorba the Greek. The weight of what that film accomplished for Greek visibility in Hollywood will forever be linked to Vardalos's image. Unfortunately, it's almost impossible to view this film without thinking about My Big Fat Greek Wedding. In contrast, Georgia's unsavory group consists of the Ugly Americans (played by SNL's Rachel Dratch and Harland Williams) who seem to have an affinity for red, white and blue t-shirts an incomprehensible Aussie couple who carry oversized cans of Foster's Larger wherever they go a crotchety elderly couple an overweight American college kid an obnoxious, cell phone- addicted IHOP manager an uptight and dysfunctional British family two just-divorced-and-on-the-prowl Spanish spinsters and an old woman with a penchant for shoplifting from trinket shops in Plaka.

Mostly made up of polite Canadians, an in-joke with Vardalos who is herself, Greek-Canadian.

A god in ruins review