REVIEW: My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 (2016, Dir. Kirk Jones)

Despite my heart on sleeve demeanour, there aren't too many films that bring a tear to my eye nowadays. Nor are there many films that have me laughing out loud (LOL in modern Internet parlance). To let loose with both in a single film is a rare treat.

Colour me as surprised as you that the cinematic treat in question is Nia Vardalos' return to her family roots, My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2.

I'm not saying I went into this open minded. If anything, after re-watching Vardalos' surprise 2002 breakout box-office gangbuster, I was less than excited. I like Vardalos, I had fond memories of the first film, but I didn't think it held up. A decade and a half removed from the delight of its grassroots success story, My Big Fat Greek Wedding felt a little tired.

What I did go in with was a broken heart, one that's probably spilled back onto my sleeve, so the film's openly sentimental tour through the ins and outs of a long term marriage struck a chord and struck it hard.

There's some clever dissembling going on in the marketing of MBFGW2. Vardalos' screenplay, which she finally agreed to write after looking at her relationship with her young daughter, deals with the next generation of the Portokalos family, but not in the way you'd expect. Yes, there's another wedding to be planned but it doesn't give young Elena Kampouris the headline, that rare treat goes to Lainie Kazan, reprising her role as Toula's gregarious mother Maria.

I'm not going to tiptoe around the obvious here, there is a lot of retread. Vardalos has reset Toula's breakaway from tradition and slapped her squarely back in the middle of her big fat Greek family, all of whom are reprising their roles from the original. Toula's again in the restaurant. Again she's bedraggled and sparkless (as is her marriage with Ian - yes, John Corbett is back again as well). Again, she needs a kick to bring some perspective into her existence - this time to extricate herself from the cultural helicoptering that she so despised in the first outing.

Truth be told, Toula and Ian are the least interesting things on offer here. It's the generation up and the generation down that bring the heart and soul to MBFGW2, and the laughs. Vardalos and director Kirk Jones don't go for subtle, and neither does Kazan, whose presence is big as her hair and as gaudy as her fashion sense. Through the kitsch though, Maria's marital tussling with her "life partner" Gus (Michael Constantine) is entirely touching, helped in no small part by Andrea Martin's tell-it-like-it-is foil, Aunt Voula.

On the other side of the generation gap, Kampouris' set upon daughter, Paris, gets a perceptive b-plot reminiscent of the best family-extrication dramas (there's a hint of Looking for Alibrandi's smarts here that is more than welcome). Kampouris' acerbically teenage performance does justice to Paris' all too predictable character arc and draws real delight in the process, especially in the film's charming climax.

That's pretty much the run of the film. Predictable laughs that give way to heartfelt cluster bombs of emotion, all the time anchored by Vardalos' bright eyed presence (I'm a fan of her schtick and she's in her element here - it is just a shame she didn't give herself a little more to do). That won't be to everyone's taste but those who are willing to shed their low expectations (or get a divorce in the lead up) will be well served.

Opa!

★★★★

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