History Film / MyBigFatGreekWedding

* LuckyCharmsTitle: My Big Fat Grssk Wedding?[[hottip:* :[[DontExplainTheJoke G-R-Sigma-Sigma-K]]]]

* HeyItsThatGuy: Chris in the Morning from ''NorthernExposure'' (as Ian). Also, some of the actors from ''ThisIsWonderland''. Also, Joey Fatone from N'Sync.

* BeautifulAllAlong

* TheOtherDarrin: Nia Vardalos and most of Toula's family came along for the TV series, but Michael Vartan had to be recast.

** Subverted in that Toula's male relatives are just messing around with Ian.

* FridgeBrilliance: What's so weird about an adult converting to Greek Orthodoxy? Nothing if you're in Greece or Turkey, but in America people so inclined would be much more likely to become Roman Catholics.
** You'd be surprised.

* SleeperHit: Turned a $5 million budget and a limited release into a ''$241 million'' domestic tally, thanks in part to such great word-of-mouth that the movie stayed in the top 10 weekly box office for over ''three months'', gradually getting a wider release with each passing week due to its success. Some of the films it outgrossed on its shoestring budget: ''AustinPowers in Goldmember'', ''MenInBlackII'', and ''Film/DieAnotherDay''.

* SleeperHit: Turned a $5 million budget and a limited release into a ''$241 million'' domestic tally, thanks in part to such great word-of-mouth that the movie stayed in the top 10 weekly box office for over ''three months'', gradually getting a wider release with each passing week due to its success. Some of the films it outgrossed on its shoestring budget: ''AustinPowers in Goldmember'', ''Film/MenInBlack II'', and ''DieAnotherDay''.

* NeverMessWithGranny: The ouzo-guzzling grandmother is somewhere between this and ScrewPolitenessImASenior. On the night before Toula's wedding she gives Toula her wedding garlands and some other keepsakes, whereupon we learn that IWasQuiteALooker.

* DistractedByTheSexy: Toula, when she first sees Ian. Later Ian when he sees Toula in the tour office, leads to a brutal old lady beatdown.

* CaliforniaDoubling: A movie about events taking place in Winnipeg, written by a Winnipeg writer, starring a Winnipeg actress, filmed ''entirely'' in Winnipeg - set in Chicago.
** Actually it was filmed in Toronto.

* GladYouThoughtOfIt

* OneHitWonder: This was Nia Vardalos's only project to have any sort of success. Her follow-ups have mostly failed critically and financially.

* StayInTheKitchen: At the start, Toula's Dad believes she should do this.

* TheOtherDarrin: In the TV adaptation.

* CulturalPosturing: There is nothing that Mr. Portokalos can't trace back to Greece. Even ''[[BeyondTheImpossible kimonos]]''.

''My Big Fat Greek Wedding'' is a 2002 {{romantic comedy}} film written by and starring Nia Vardalos and directed by Joel Zwick. At the 76th {{Academy Award}}s, it was nominated for Best Original Screenplay.

* OddNameOut: Almost of the young family members have the name (or variation) of Anita (including Athena and Angelo), Diane or Nick (including Nikki). The outsider? Toula.

* MyBigFatGreekWedding

Toula Portokalos is a single, voluptuous thirty-year-old Greek woman living with her parents and brother in a close-knit [[TheWindyCity Chicago]] Greek community and working in the family's Greek restaurant. They even have a Greek statue in their front lawn and proudly painted the Greek flag on their garage door. Deciding to invigorate her life, she breaks out on her own to go to college and start working at a travel agency. She also gets a makeover, taming her wild hair and [[TheGlassesGottaGo getting contacts]].

* FairytaleWeddingDress: Toula's dress, even though with the veil it looks overdone. "I'm a snow beast!"

* FairytaleWeddingDress: Toula's dress, even though with the veil it looks overdone.

* TactfulTranslation: Unimpressed with Ian's attempt to wish him a happy Easter ("Cheestro Nasty!"[[hottip:*:meant to be ''Χριστός ἀνέστη'' (''Christos Anesti'')]]), Gus mutters in Greek, "My people were writing philosophy when your people were still swinging in trees." At Ian's confused look, Toula says, "He likes you."

* AcceptableTargets: Greeks. [=WASPs=]. Possibly Turks. All PlayedForLaughs. (Of course, being of Greek heritage herself, Nia Vardalos is allowed to make fun of Greeks.)

* HollywoodHomely: Partly averted in that, while certainly attractive, Nia Vardalos is anything but "Hollywood beautiful," and her "homely" look was genuinely convincing.
-->'''RogerEbert''': Everyone in this movie looks like they could be a real person. The romance involves not impossibly attractive people, but a 30-year-old woman who looks OK when she pulls herself out of her Frump Phase...I relaxed, knowing it was set in the real world, and not in the Hollywood alternative universe where Julia Roberts can't get a date.

* SleeperHit: Turned a $5 million budget and a limited release into a ''$241 million'' domestic tally, thanks in part to such great word-of-mouth that the movie stayed in the top 10 weekly box office for over ''three months'', gradually getting a wider release with each passing week due to its success. Some of the films it outgrossed on its shoestring budget: ''AustinPowers in Goldmember'', ''MenInBlack II'', and ''DieAnotherDay''.

* ConvertingForLove: Ian, to Greek Orthodoxy.
** CrowningMomentOfFunny: Since the Church isn't used to adults converting, he is baptised in a kiddie-pool.
*** Lot of other moments as well.

''MyBigFatGreekWedding'' is a 2002 {{romantic comedy}} film written by and starring Nia Vardalos and directed by Joel Zwick. At the 76th {{Academy Award}}s, it was nominated for Best Original Screenplay.