by Ethan Johnson
November 18, 2002

Note: As per custom, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets will get its own article. Stay tuned.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding: Where has this movie been all of our lives? This was one of those flicks where I pretty much knew three minutes into it that we were sooo going to own it on DVD. Without going into the heavy details, the theme of the movie is "coming to grips with one's [in this case, Greek] ethnic background and heritage while trying to be a red-blooded American." This movie was FABULOUS. I firmly believe that regardless of anything that happens from this day forward, this is what creator Nia Vardalos was put here on Earth to accomplish. I mean, if she goes on to do "bigger and better" things, that's fine, but this movie had heart that wouldn't quit.

Naturally, it was easy to get into the story being that once upon a time, Lebanese Marlena met Whitey-White-Bread Ethan and lived, well, in Texas, but the "happily ever after" part will come sooner or later, right?

A brief tangent inspired by this here movie: We were profoundly compelled into thinking about the nature of ethnic background, of heritage, and of being an American. That night, we went to Hedary's (it got better, but still needs some "oomph"). We listened to Natacha Atlas. I found a web site that explained (not altogether clearly) how do dance the debke. I found another web site that contained an article that pretty much said what we were feeling: When people of different ethnic backgrounds come to America, they seem to (I realize this is a gross exaggeration, but I'm just piecing together someone else's thoghts here) want to "shed" any association with that ethnicity and blend into the woodwork. But, like the author of this article, we want to keep in touch with those roots, listen to the music, eat the foods, and hear the language. Mar watched the Elias Family History video that Danny made twice yesterday. Speaking of things people were put here to do, Danny did a great thing by transferring the old family films to videotape.

So yada yada yada, go see the movie, now. I mean it. Go. Off the computer. Move it!

Monsoon Wedding: Notice a theme here?

Actually, the theme of this movie is, "coming to grips with being [ethnic group here, in this case, Indian] and watching your cultural identity being diluted as your family shuttles back and forth to the USA."

This was a remarkable movie. As if we weren't all profound and wrapped up in the concepts of ethnicity and heritage on Saturday, we turn around and watch a movie on Sunday that left us breathless. This was a very heavy movie that came wrapped in fluff. If you haven't seen it, you should. As per usual, I won't get into particulars about the movie itself, so you can have a fairly fresh experience when you see it.

Tangent II: I kept thinking about how we saw Nisha & Sawrin's wedding pictures on display in their house, and Nisha proclaimed, "our wedding was very ethnic," as bride and groom were pictured in the traditional wedding dress. Like that's a bad thing or something. When we were at their son's 1st birthday party, we were surrounded by traditional Indian attire, and I thought, why don't we have stuff like that? "We" meaning "white America", which is an article unto itself (as always, stay tuned).

As is the true indication of whether a movie was any good or not (in my opinion), yes, we are getting this on DVD. Now go see it. <EM>