IL MIO GROSSO GRASSO MATRIMONIO GRECO 2

Con il cambio di timone l’atto secondo de Il mio grosso grasso matrimonio greco ci guadagna. Mentre la sceneggiatura mantiene la firma della protagonista Nia Vardalos (Toula), questa volta la regia è condotta dal
regista britannico Kirk Jones (Svegliati Ned, Nanny McPhee-Tata Matilda, Stanno tutti bene-Everybody’s Fine, Cosa aspettarsi quando si aspetta). E si vede! Il film mantiene la linfa pilota dell’orgoglio greco ma aggiunge maggior spessore e, di conseguenza, divertimento. E pure con un certo stile! A cominciare dall’inizio di questa nuova storia che sintetizza il reiterato OPA del capitolo precedente, in veste di targa apposta sull’auto: ‘OPA-La felicità dell’essere greco’, accompagnata dalle note musicale tipicamente ellenistiche. Un lasciapassare, praticamente, per la visione del film!

Il passaggio generazionale che vede Toula/Vardalos madre di Paris (Elena Kampouris), già in età da college e dunque in procinto di lasciare il nido - verso quale orizzonte volerà? Università locale di Chicago o New York?

- rinnova ansie e responsabilità in cui la famiglia - allargata alla miriade di parenti che ben sappiamo - resta sempre al centro di ogni problema individuale. Privacy e radice greca non vanno di pari passo, a quanto pare! E comunque, ritroviamo qui gli inossidabili, comici personaggi, a cominciare da quel patriarca di Gus (Michael Constantine) che ora rivolge alla nipote appena diciassettenne lo stesso mantra - ‘ti conviene sposarti, sembri vecchia’ - con cui spronava la figlia Toula/Vardalos prima del matrimonio con Ian Miller (John Corbett), adesso Preside della scuola frequentata dalla figlia. Toula dal canto suo, è il tappabuchi che sistema ogni piccolo e/o grosso guaio di famiglia, in perenne ansia per la figlia, i genitori e… ben poco tempo per se stessa e per il marito. Ma, per quanto consapevoli e con l’intenzione di porvi rimedio, anche quando da soli, Toula e Ian finiscono per parlare sempre

della figlia Paris, o vengono sorpresi in auto dall’intera famiglia, mentre magari sono alle prese con effusioni intime. E poi c’è il padre, Gus/Constantine che, ossessionato dalle sue radici, intende ricercare un ipotetico suo collegamento diretto nientemeno che con Alessandro Magno. Incredibile a dirsi ma lo vedremo alle prese con il computer, naturalmente assistito da Toula e dall’intera famiglia a rotazione, di cui il montaggio registra lo sfiancamento per la ‘missione impossibile’.

Ora, se qualcuno si stesse chiedendo quale ‘grosso grasso matrimonio greco’ si celebrasse questa volta, può prendere nota del fatto che il certificato di nozze dei genitori di Toula non è stato firmato dal sacerdote: dunque, dopo cinquant’anni, la coppia scopre di non essere sposata. Le gag e le scaramucce si sprecano su questo registro prima di arrivare ai mega preparativi dell’evento di cui finirà per occuparsi questa grande famiglia. Intanto però si nicchia, così Toula/Vardalos rispedisce comicamente

al mittente paterno lo stesso suo mantra: “si papà, ti conviene sposarti, cominci a sembrare vecchio”. E tutto questo, incastonato in un altro capitolo di ‘commedia assolutamente corale’, mentre le nuove generazioni scoprono nuovi amori, imprevedibilmente di origine greca, com’è il caso di Paris/Kampouris. Secondo voi, visto che è stato annunciato il terzo atto, di chi sarà il prossimo ‘grosso, grasso matrimonio greco’?

This 14-years-later sequel is every bit as sitcom-ish and saccharine as its predecessor, but considerably less distinctive.

Making a sequel to one of the biggest sleeper hits of all time is a tall order, and scribe-star Nia Vardalos let 14 years pass before revisiting her breakout success with “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2.” Whether or not audiences feel like it was worth the wait will depend heavily on how much they’re up for a family reunion: Literally the entire major cast returns in this simultaneously overstuffed and undernourished follow-up. Every bit as sitcom-ish and saccharine as its predecessor, but considerably less distinctive, “Wedding” redux will unquestionably fall short of the original’s massive $241 million domestic gross. But the curiosity of a presumably still-loyal fan base should at least allow for a respectable honeymoon period opposite “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice,” before this Universal release settles into

its natural habitat as cable-TV filler.

Critics didn’t exactly flip for Vardalos’ feature length ethnic joke-cum-romantic comedy when it first opened, and no one predicted that it would garner phenomenal word-of-mouth B.O. success or multiple award nominations (including an Oscar nom for Vardalos’ original screenplay and a SAG ensemble nom for the cast). So all the critical carping in the world may not matter a damn where this follow-up is concerned, either. Still, it’s just about impossible to imagine lightning striking twice — especially since Vardalos seems to have used up all her best Greek-specific gags the first time around.

Family remains the driving force of the story: Toula (Vardalos) and Ian (John Corbett) are dealing with their perpetually angry 17-year-old daughter, Paris (Elena Kampouris), who feels like her parents are every bit as overbearing and embarrassing as Toula always found her own mom and dad. Cue Toula’s proud Greek immigrant father,

Gus (Michael Constantine), coughing “payback” under his breath at the family restaurant.

Paris hopes to go to college as far away from the family’s home in Chicago as she can get (although she’s also considering Northwestern), and Toula’s realization that she may soon lose her baby girl isn’t sitting too well, even if it means an opportunity to rekindle the romantic spark with Ian that’s been all but snuffed out by the passage of time. If the first film’s arc was essentially “Toula learns to stop feeling smothered and love her family again,” the second film’s arc is essentially “Toula learns to stop smothering and love her family again.”

But the title mandates that there’s still some kind of wedding in the works, and Vardalos concocts a whopper of a justification for that: It turns out the marriage license of her parents, Gus and Maria (Lainie Kazan), was never signed by a

priest before they left Greece for the U.S., meaning they’re not legally married (or something). Gus immediately wants to rectify the problem, but Maria seizes the unexpected opportunity to re-evaluate wedded life and consider her options.

The threat of Maria abandoning her marriage after 50 years is never very real (especially when, like everyone in the family, she’s unforgiving in her belief that all singletons should settle down), but it’s what passes for drama in Vardalos’ cluttered screenplay. Even when Paris takes it upon herself to ask the boy (Alex Wolff) she’s crushing on to go the the prom, one family member comes out of the closet and Gus’ long-lost brother (a solid yet underutilized Mark Margolis) arrives for the wedding, Vardalos seems pathologically afraid of introducing conflict — as if the mere suggestion that things might not work out would be too much for her core audience to handle.

More problematic

is that the well seems to have run dry when it comes to Vardalos’ examination of Greek-American culture, however shallow it was to begin with. She wasn’t winning highbrow respect for her indulgence in romantic-comedy cliches and stereotypical first-generation immigrant family behavior the first time around, but there was a specificity to the reference points that added a modicum of flavor. This time it’s Gus who does most of the heavy lifting — still toting around his beloved Windex and claiming every word, invention and person has Greek roots — but aside from an obsession with using Web-based ancestry archives to prove he’s a direct descendant of Alexander the Great, there’s no fresh twist to the shtick.

Assuming the directing reins from Joel Zwick (who made two more features after “Wedding” and then returned to his sitcom roots), helmer Kirk Jones gives the film a pedestrian polish that falls more in

line with his recent underwhelming output (“Everybody’s Fine,” “What to Expect When You’re Expecting”) than his breakout crowdpleaser “Waking Ned Devine.” And the tech contributions, some of which come from returning artisans like production designer Gregory Keen, are nothing special.

Both Vardalos and Jones know that the magic, such as it is, comes from the cast, and if auds prove willing to give the limp dramatics and wan comedy a pass, it’ll be solely because they enjoy spending time with the characters. Now a clingy mom and burned-out wife back working in a family’s restaurant, Toula is a less sympathetic figure than she was before, and Vardalos feels a bit rusty when it comes to physical and verbal humor. Corbett, charming enough the first time out, is basically window dressing here, while supporting players Joey Fatone, Gia Carides and Louis Mandylor all hit the same notes.

Andrea Martin remains the most significant

scene stealer as feisty Aunt Voula, but even with a bit more screen time it’s emblematic of the pic as a whole that she doesn’t get anything as quotable as “What do you mean he don’t eat no meat? That’s OK. I make lamb".