My Big Fat Greek Wedding is ethnic humor at its most broad - which means writer and star Nia Vardalos doesn't exactly win awards for subtlety or originality. But her warm-hearted riff on what it means to be Greek and American, accent on the latter, is really about the universal themes of family and what it means to love and be loved in spite of what good sense tells you.
That makes the film agreeable; what makes it engaging is the welcome presence of John Corbett, best known as the Zen-wise DJ Chris on Northern Exposure. As the non-Greek love interest who stirs up the movie's ethnic pot, Corbett gives the film a grounding that's at once fanciful, because his character remains unflappable despite a barrage of slights and outright insults that would bow any man, and believable, because winning this guy's heart forever would be worth ticking your family off.
Adapted from a one-woman show Vardalos had been performing in Los Angeles, the movie's intent is clear from the opening scene. "Nice Greek girls are expected to do three things," Vardalos announces in a voiceover, "Marry Greek boys, make Greek babies and feed everyone until the day we die."
