These are not days for wandering too far from the beaten path, are they. The humble cinema-goer, seeking shelter from the storm outside, is perfectly justified in finding solace in the blandness of a movie such as this. It’s safe, predictable and reassuring in a soppy but true sort of way.
All of the players from 2002’s original instalment are back, but with the addition of Toula and Ian’s daughter, Paris (Elena Kampouris) – who, at seventeen, is a tad older than strict chronology might allow for. After graduating from school, Paris (to be pedantic – in ancient Greece, Paris was a bloke) wants to leave home in Chicago and attend college in New York. This is the serious issue underpinning a script that is constructed around the wedding of Gus and Maria (Paris’s grandparents). The elderly couple have discovered that because their marriage certificate was not signed by the presiding priest, they have officially remained unmarried for all these years. One lame, culturally clichéd joke follows the other as the family – they all live in the same street in houses with kitsch columns etc – get together to prepare for the big day. Michael Constantine and Lainie Kazan are terribly irritating as the oldies, but Nia Vardalos as Toula is warm and ‘real’ in a way that most of the other gesticulating stereotypes are not. Though given less of the spotlight, Kampouris is quite lovely as the rebellious child who is determined to break the shackles of a tradition that she finds stifling but which you know she will come to treasure.
Australia’s Gia Carides gets to flaunt her specky cleavage as one of the feisty aunties; there is a tender scene in which everybody welcomes a gay rel’s coming out of the closet, and the reunion of Gus and his brother Panos is surprisingly touching.
It is an easy film to watch and one that might even grow on you as it bubbles along to the reception’s happy song and dance at the end.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
