My Big Fat Greek Wedding

A 30-year-old Greek-American single woman (Nia Vardalos, who wrote the script) is pressured by her family to find a husband, but they’re disappointed when she doesn’t fall in love with a “nice Greek boy.” Good feelings abound in this raucous comedy, but the story feels stale and the characters—Greeks and WASPs alike—sink too often to sketch-comedy stereotypes. Vardalos has an earthy, ethnic beauty (she looks like the young Anna Magnani), but not much flair for comedy beyond mugging and bulging her eyes. As her white-bread fiancé, John Corbett is a bit too bland, while her relatives (parents Lainie Kazan and Michael Constantine, aunt Andrea Martin, cousin Gia Carides) are much too outlandish (blame the heavy hand of director Joel Zwick for that, combined with the script’s tinny jokes).