'My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2' review

[yasr_overall_rating]

Sequels can be ill-fated territory for just about any type of film, but romantic comedies have a particularly questionable track record in this area. It's arguable as to whether or not My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002) can truly be considered a romantic comedy—although if it can be, the movie is by some metrics considered the highest-grossing romantic comedy of all time—but by the end of My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2, it's clear that the film has veered farther into might be called the "family calamity" subgenre of comedy. This would place it in the particularly dubious company of sequels like Father of the Bride Part II (1995), which spends a whole 106 minutes pedaling the unbelievable plot line that Steve Martin's wife and his fully-grown, married daughter have babies at the same time.

Thankfully, making it through My Big Fat Greek Wedding Part 2 does not require so hefty a suspension of disbelief. It finds former travel agent Toula Portokalos (Nia Vardalos, who also penned both the original and the sequel) in nearly the same position that she was at the outset of the first film—a state of physical and psychological malaise she once dubbed "frump girl"—as she grapples with her daughter Paris leaving for college, her husband Ian (John Corbett) becoming increasingly fed up with her still-overbearing Greek family dominating her time and her parents' disputes over getting married, once it is revealed that their marriage certificate was never signed.

Impressively, not a single family member from the original cast appears to be missing, and to their credit—to paraphrase John Stamos, who lends his (authentic!) Greek god features to the production as a new Church parishioner, on the occasion of another recent comedy cast reunion of questionable merit - damn, do they still look good. More impressive, though, is how present each cast member remains in their role. They not only step up to the plate, but they bring their A game to a script that is often saccharine, other times banal. The whole cast deserves praise for their valiant efforts to reassemble such a lovable family—one that is also imminently relatable, due to its immigrant status. Andrea Martin especially shines, just as she did in the first film, in her role as matriarch Aunt Voula. Nia Vardalos deserves recognition as well, not only for her expertly deadpanned one-liners, but also for daring to portray the reality of aging, and of watching your parents age, as an adult.

Overall, the film focuses on Toula's family's continued reliance on her. "Toula," her siblings say, "fix this!"—some variant of this phrase is constantly spurted throughout the film. While diehard fans of the original who loved the film for its colorful characters will undoubtedly love what is ultimately an homage to the first film, viewers who admired the first My Big Fat Greek Wedding for its fish-out-of-water feel (attributable, perhaps in large part, to the fact that it was based on Vardalos' one-woman play) might be tempted to level the same command—"Fix this"—at Nia, rather than Toula.