‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3’ is a hilarious family reunion 

By Anna Harman

I was so excited when I first saw the trailer for this movie that I put the release date on my calendar immediately. I loved the first two “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” movies, so I knew I had to see this. 

It was so cool to see a lot of the original characters come back in this movie, especially Toula (Nia Vardalo), Ian (John Corbett) and Aunt Voula (Andrea Martin). However, we found out right at the start of the movie that Toula’s mom Maria (Lainie Kazan) was developing Alzheimer’s disease and her father Gus (Michael Constantine) had passed away. It was really sad to see these two amazing characters from the previous movies come to a close. I’m glad that they did include them, if only for a brief part of the film. 

Toula decided that the family needed to take a trip to Greece to attend a family reunion and also fulfill her father’s dying wish of giving his journal to his childhood friends. When they showed up for the reunion, there was no one there except their cousin (Melina Kotselou), who was hoping they could help find the rest of the family and bring the now ghost town back to life. 

There was a shocking and abrupt catch to this movie: Gus had a love interest before meeting Maria, with a woman in this town, Alexandra (Anthi Andreopoulou), who gave birth to a son belonging to Gus, who he was never told about. So now, the Portokalos family found out they have another brother, Peter (Alexis Georgoulis), and of course, they brought him into the family quickly. I thought it was a weird addition to the story, and also kind of sad since Gus never found out about his son before his death. 

I did enjoy Alexandra’s character. She was a very firm and, traditional Greek woman, which added an element of comedy to the film because everyone was afraid of her. She was also extremely blunt about things. One of my favorite moments was when she said “Pick which chicken we’ll eat for dinner” and Ian said, “Thank you, but I’m actually a vegetarian.” Her response was simply but firmly, “No.” Her character was a surprisingly hilarious addition to the film. 

The family stayed in this run-down town in Greece and spent time connecting to their roots and their father in the town he grew up in. There was a strong theme of family, heritage, and love in this movie that I thought was very charming. At the end of the film, Toula and her brother (Louis Mandylor) even scatter their dad’s ashes underneath his favorite tree, hoping to honor him in this way by bringing him back to his homeland.  

Overall, this was a movie with lots of hilarious moments due to the spirited and sassy personalities of the family members. It was heartwarming and also lighthearted. While some of the plot line was a bit dry, I think the main purpose of the movie was to bring the family back together and to tell the story of how a family did life together and grew closer. I really enjoyed this movie and would recommend it to anyone who needs a laugh!

“My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3” is now playing in theaters.

Anna Harman is a senior Christian Education major and also a reporter for Cedars. She appreciates writing, chai lattes, flowers and going to concerts.

Images courtesy of Focus Features.