What is in a title?  In the case of the trilogy launched by My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002), apparently everything.  Though not quite as inevitable as God, almost any movie that enjoys a measure of popularity is likely to get a sequel.  Because studios are afraid of creativity, they stick with a tried-and-true formula for what they think brought them success.  You can see this with My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 (2016).  It would not be accurate to say it is the same plot, but they shoehorn in a marriage because, well, it is in the name.  In the meantime, they toned down much of what made it charming for me personally, namely the Chicago and religious setting.  Others will point to plot threads that seemingly go nowhere, and character progressions that happen for no discernible reason.  I wanted to like this one because I appreciated its predecessor.  This is all without mentioning My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 (2023), of which I have only the vaguest of memories.  However, because I am a stickler for completing a series, here we go.

Unsurprisingly, the person who is a stickler at the beginning of My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 is Fatoula “Toula” Portokalos-Miller (Nia Vardalos).  She is the eldest daughter of her father, Kostas “Gus” Portokalos (Michael Constantine), who is also her neighbor, and the first scene features him chauffeuring Toula and her daughter, Paris Miller (Elena Kampouris), as well as much of the rest of the family.  This time, it is Paris who is embarrassed by the Portokalos horde, which is why Toula tries her hardest to be circumspect about her eagerness to be a part of the seventeen-year-old girl’s life.  It is difficult for Toula because she is seeing her life as going backwards.  In the last film, we saw her go from retiring restaurant worker for her parents, to confident college graduate operating the family’s travel agency, and culminating as the radiant bride of non-Greek Ian Miller (John Corbett).  Yet, as sometimes happens in life, people make compromises that seem like the right decision in the moment but eventually lead to disappointment.  Having to deal with an increasingly rebellious Paris is not helpful.  As usual, Gus’ solution is for his granddaughter to find a Greek man to marry and start having babies, never mind college.  Speaking of higher education, one of Paris’ tasks is to get into a school of her choice.  At least Ian and Toula are supportive of that choice, although they are hoping she gets into the nearby Northwestern University instead of going out of state.  Once more, the Portokalos’ well-meaning assistance when she meets with the Northwestern representative nearly backfires.  It is Gus who argues with the man from the school (Rob Riggle), saying that any such institution should be honored to have Paris considering he is a descendant of Alexander the Great.  This talk of the ancient Greek conqueror gets him wanting to prove his lineage, leading to him having Toula show him how to use the computer to access one of those ancestry sites.  With some reluctant supervision by Toula and others, he painstakingly enters the data.  In the process, he begins unearthing documents, such as his marriage certificate.  Upon viewing the faded piece of paper, he notices that the priest who performed the ceremony did not sign it.  This means, technically speaking, Maria Portokalos (Lainie Kazan), the woman with whom he has lived for fifty years, is not his wife.  Gus asks that the priest at their Greek Orthodox church affix his signature, but is told that would not be liturgically correct.  By the way, that phrase is not used in the movie.  That is me putting the rejection in Catholic terms.  At any rate, Gus expects Maria to be angry, but she laughs it away and wonders why anyone makes a big deal of these matters.  Gus is rattled by her behavior, but not willing to put in the effort to get her to make their marriage official.  With that, she tells him that he can no longer sleep in their room and they will remain estranged until he proposes properly.  This sets off an interlude of her getting huffy whenever he speaks to her, especially when they are at work, which only deepens their divide.  With a warning from Aunt Theia Voula (Andrea Martin) that their marriage will go in the same direction, Ian and Toula try to do things to rekindle their marriage.  This plan goes by the wayside after one date, and is put officially on hold when Ian and many of the other men in the family are called to help get Gus out of the bathtub when the elderly man’s hip locks.  As Gus is carted away by emergency medical technicians (EMT), Maria stubbornly declares she will not go to the hospital.  This is too much for him to bear anymore, and he finally makes his proposal.  She accepts.  Maria hires a wedding planner, but the woman soon quits, unable to keep up with the excessive and loud demands.  It thus falls to Toula to make all the arrangements, though she does defer to Aunt Voula on many tasks.  This is good for Toula because things with Paris are improving.  The young lady gets into New York University and Northwestern, and initially chooses the one closer to town.  Everyone is overjoyed, but it is clear Paris wants to venture farther afield.  Her decision to switch schools goes down easier when she comes home to announce that she has found a date for prom, Bennett (Alex Wolff), who also turns out to be Greek.  Even though the dance is the same day as Gus and Maria’s wedding, Paris goes, but returns for the reception.  Everyone is happy, and the final scene is the entire family sending Paris off in her dorm room in New York City.

There is a sweetness to Paris’ entire family being inside her dorm room as she meets her roommate for the first time at the end of My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2.  For most of the film, this is the last thing she wants.  What changes her mind, though it is almost too subtle, is when Toula stands up to their neighbors who are deriding another Portokalos spectacle.  Paris steps in before her mom says anything too mean, but from that point on, the two are once again confidants.  The incident, though, is indicative of something larger that Toula is warned against by Ian: she is constantly trying to fix everything.  It happens in small ways with Gus and the computer, and in bigger ways with her parents’ wedding.  Meanwhile, the people who care about her the most get to see less of her.  From a Catholic perspective, it is wonderful that she has a heart to serve others.  It does not matter if it is family, friends, or strangers, to be willing to go the extra mile for others is Biblical in every sense of the word.  However, there is a difference between rendering assistance and solving their problems.  More often, the latter of those two imperatives is motivated by pride, either in your own abilities or the lack of another’s.  Further, inserting oneself into a situation, no matter how well-intentioned, can do further damage.  It is difficult to see that going on here because none of the plot threads are well executed.  Take the Paris-Toula relationship, for instance.  In any other case, Toula lecturing strangers would be embarrassing for Paris.  Yet, for some reason in this moment, Paris is touched by her mom’s actions.  At the same time, her outburst could have further alienated others in the neighborhood.  The way to avoid such issues is to follow Jesus’ example.  Speaking truth in love is a good, if clichéd motto to keep in mind.  More specifically, it looks like patience, and this is what Toula appears to learn by the end.

In the end, I would tell you to skip My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2.  Indeed, they should have stopped with the first movie.  It is never easy to re-capture whatever spark was in a previous iteration, and the sequel fails to do so on many levels.