‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3’ Review: N’opa!

Nia Vardalos seized the film trade’s consideration twenty years in the past when she wrote and starred within the loosely autobiographical “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” an indie charmer that is still the highest-grossing romantic comedy of all time.

Audiences rallied behind her relatable Toula Portokalos, a wallflower Chicago waitress who straightened each her hair and her backbone regardless of the protests of her domineering household. As Toula fought to go away her father’s restaurant, forge her personal profession and marry her non-Greek boyfriend (John Corbett), many moviegoers noticed themselves in her hard-won successes.

But a lot for empowerment this time round. “It’s a badge of honor to take care of people,” Toula narrates humbly on the high of “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3.” This is the primary movie within the franchise that Vardalos not solely performs in and writes, but additionally directs — though, in reality, she’s barely the star.

This noisy sequel cedes the punchlines and the plotlines to the extra cacophonous members of the Portokalos clan, notably Andrea Martin’s returning scene-stealer, the busybody Aunt Voula. (“I’m not a gossip, I’m a tattletale,” Voula huffs.) While the ensemble bickers and schemes, or, within the case of Toula’s preening brother Nick (Louis Mandylor), publicly shaves himself at inappropriate instances, Toula’s laughs come solely at her expense. (Hitting her head, falling off a donkey and so forth.) The script features like a recipe for its personal opening shot of baklava; flattened and bland, Toula exists solely to constrain the nuts.

The story begins after the passing of Toula’s father, Gus, the patriarch performed with grumbling affection by Michael Constantine, who died in 2021. To honor Gus, a grab-bag of relations takes their first-ever journey to Greece to go to his mountainous childhood dwelling, a near-abandoned hamlet close to(ish) the seaside. Only six individuals stay within the village, and two of them are secretly courting — the sequence’s core trope stays a hushed romance.

This and dozens of different tiny conflicts ripple by the film, resolving themselves with a hug or an absent-minded cutaway earlier than anyone drawback swells into one thing price our concern. The oddest disposable gag comes when Toula blurts her sexual attraction to a mustachioed stranger (Alexis Georgoulis). The man instantly reveals himself to be a relative.

The historic Greeks wrote tragedy after tragedy warning in opposition to hubris. Yet, Vardalos’s flailing crowd-pleaser wants a shot of self-confidence and logic. Why has Toula, a micromanaging former journey information, flown her family abroad with out considering to guide a lodge? Why would we consider that her sq. daughter (Elena Kampouris) is, with zero proof, a wild baby on the sting of sabotaging her life? And why do a few of the rural Greeks communicate English with a greater accent than Aunt Voula? Nothing provides up.

Not that I begrudge Martin a single one among her quips. If Vardalos is not snug on the heart of the franchise, hand the entire thing over to her.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3
Rated PG-13 for a suggestive scene on a nude seaside with strategically positioned slices of watermelon. Running time: 1 hour 31 minutes. In theaters.