Why was this made?
I mean, I know I basically asked the same question when the second film came out, but I am struggling even more with rationalising this one. At least with the first sequel, it was building off of what remains one of the most financially successful rom-coms ever. The second film didn’t come anywhere near that same profit margin, and with how devoid of entertainment value it turned out, raw finances are basically the only reason I could see why they would even bother continuing.
Far as I can tell, this is just star/writer and now director Nia Vardalos adding to the grand tradition of cinematic productions that exist primarily as an excuse for a paid vacation. So fine. If this film simply must exist, there’s not a whole lot I can do outside of hoping that, at the very least, it qualifies for ‘good for what it is’.
And yet I didn’t even get that much.
The plot (ostensibly) is about Vardalos’ Toula getting the family together in Greece for a reunion and farewell to their departed patriarch Gus (whose actor, Michael Constantine, passed away in 2021). In fairness to the performances this time around, this thankfully avoids the pervasive toxicity of the family dynamic in the second film… for the most part, but we’ll get to that. At its heart, this is supposed to be about togetherness and embracing one’s culture and upbringing, and there’s definitely a certain warmth to its depiction of both the Greek Islands and their inhabitants. If nothing else, it certainly sells a Greek holiday as a good idea.
However, the actual glue holding any number of scenes containing these characters together is… practically non-existent. This feels like a prolonged exercise in seeing how far “this happened, and then this happened, and then this happened” etc. writing can go, and it turns out that it can’t even fill out 85 minutes (not counting the closing credits). Characters will wander off on their own, do things that aren’t even tangentially connected to what they keep insisting are character arcs in the script, and then just pop back into frame for no other reason than the plot requires them to.
Not that the jokes that make up a large amount of these moments can even skate by just on being humourous. There are a lot of recycled jokes in this thing, mostly to do with the ‘every word is based on the Greek language’ running gag that gets brought up as an especially limp form of fanservice. Beyond that, it’s more of the same overbearing, oversharing, ‘trimming ear hairs at the lunch table’ kind of fare which, as I pointed out last time, is just sitcom run-off. At this point, this feels like bitterness about the series’ own attempt at a sitcom spin-off going bust, as if continuing to hammer the button will just magically make it work all of a sudden.
Hell, even with the decidedly less unpleasant atmosphere this time around, there’s still traces of the second film’s unhealthy interfamilial attitudes going on here. And once again, it’s Elena Kampouris’ Paris who ends up bearing the brunt of it. Alarm bells immediately went off when they chose to bring back one of the more bewildering rom-com cliches, where the family of the romantic lead in question forcefully try to set her up with someone despite her protestations. This is made worse by how the set-up-é in question, Elias Kacavas’ Aristotle, is Paris’ ex. And because this series’ ideas about healthy relationships is about as dead as the series itself, this is treated as the right move, with Paris eventually breaking down in tears about she was the one at fault for the initial break-up, and her aunts patting themselves on the back about how they’re so much better than dating apps. Spare me.
Despite that development, though, I will admit that this still didn’t actively bring my piss to a boil like the second film did. Not that big of an accomplishment, admittedly, but I can at least buy into the pretence about this being about a big Greek family on vacation and living their best life. I may not be a fan of this series, but I see enough here to be of some interest to those who are. But even then, a lighter touch isn’t enough to excuse a lot of the same recurring problems, from the weak humour, to the unfathomably messy pacing, to the continued insistence that interfering in the love lives of family members, however well-intentioned, is somehow a good idea.
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