Film Analysis: My Big Fat Greek Wedding

The movie chosen for this assignment on marriage/divorce is a popular movie from 2002 titled My Big Fat Greek Wedding. The film grossed over $368,000,000 in box offices worldwide due to its real life cultural elements in regards to marriage, humor, and drama (Box Office Mojo, 2014). The film starts up with “Toula" the protagonist, a Greek woman and main character of the film expressing her disdain for her perceived early midlife crisis. She is in her early thirties unmarried and without children. Due to her Greek culture and pressure from her family, she feels as though she has failed in life and cannot compare to the sister who is the “ideal” Greek woman who married a Greek man and produced Greek Babies. Toula feels that she is the only woman who is lacking fulfillment in life due to her lifestyle Toula is stuck working in the family restaurant in Chicago. She becomes depressed and pessimistic fearing that she is destined to be stuck with her life as it
Despite being in a different country, her family holds tightly to the cultural norms from Greece and are adamant about not immersing themselves in cultures that are not Greek. The movie, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, portrays extended-family household, in which three or more generations live together. “Within the extended family, grandparents play meaningful roles in guiding younger generations; adolescents and adults with employment, marital, or child-rearing difficulties receive assistance and emotional support; and caregiving is enhanced for children and the elderly. Active, involved extended families also characterize other minorities, such as Asian, Native-American, and Hispanic subcultures” (Berk, 2013, p. 346). This is a far cry from the nuclear family that Ian and his parents are used to. This family type is typical in America and have the just parents and their children. These two family styles clash at first but in time things are resolved before the