YMMV / My Big Fat Greek Wedding

• Applicability: What makes the movie so universally appealing is that every family, not just Greeks, has quirks which makes it difficult for outsiders to get in. Plug in any variation of heritage or culture, along with the stereotypes therein, and the movie is still largely the same. One trailer even acknowledged this by having several cultures appear one after the other in the title before ultimately landing on "Greek." This is supported by Gus's wedding speech about how people from all cultural backgrounds are similar.
• Award Snub: The film's screenplay garnered a nomination at the Academy Awards, but the acclaimed performances of Nia Vardalos and Michael Constantine did not.
• Esoteric Happy Ending: The new house that Toula's parents buy for her and Ian is right next door to theirs; while the relationship between all of them has massively improved, that still doesn't mean that Toula and Ian would be happy living in such close proximity all the time.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The love story which inspired Nia Vardalos's story ended in divorce.
• Hype Backlash: Being one of the most successful and popular indie films of all time, it's not uncommon for latecomers to be disappointed and say that it's merely an above-average romantic comedy, not helped by its non-too-subtle appeal to traditionalism and near-cartoonish Self-Deprecation of Greeks.
• Sequelitis:
  • While the film might not be universally beloved, it's still much better regarded than My Big Fat Greek Life, which is regarded as one of the worst television spin-offs ever to be made, and among the worst major network sitcoms of all-time.
  • My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 wasn't as poorly-received as the series was, and did well enough at the box-office to earn back its budget in its opening weekend, but reviews still weren't too kind to it, accusing it of being too much of a rehash of the first film and generally lacking in substance.
• Values Dissonance: Slightly. Identity politics in the post-BLM era have made it so that immigrant cultural traditions are more popularly seen as a source of empowerment against prejudice by mainstream society, rather than as a source of embarassment and constraint. One article in the Guardian railed against the plot of women needing to find husbands outside their group to escape stifling tradition. Even so, the movie still portrays the Greek family as sympathetic and loving, and ultimately accepting of Toula's wishes and a source of comfort for her, so the backlash isn't as big as it would be if they were portrayed as real villains.

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