This film is based on the one-woman show written by and starring Nia Vardalos, who plays the put-upon Toula. Still unmarried at thirty, Toula's dull existence includes working at the family restaurant, Dancing Zorba's, and fielding offers from her parents for a trip to Greece to find a husband.

The Cinderella plot plunges into comedic overdrive when Toula freezes upon seeing the divine Ian (Corbett ((mdash)) who looked more divine with the better haircut he sported in 'Sex and the City') and decides that her life needs a drastic overhaul. Of course, being a film, all it takes is a new office job and some contact lenses, and Ian is transfixed. That just leaves the small matter of having to charm her parents, aunts, uncles, grandma...

With a few changes, My Big Fat Greek Wedding could be the story of any family in which people eat well, get loud and carry on. I'm sure everyone in the theatre will be chuckling away because they can relate to it in some way. This is a great comedy that is more than a 'chick flick', enjoyable by everyone.

John (Chaplin) is a bank clerk who has tired of trying to find the perfect woman. So he sends out for a mail-order bride from Russia. He is very pleased to find out that the woman he has ordered is Nicole Kidman, and, although she doesn't speak English, he finds her other skills more than compensate. Complications arise, however, when 'friends' of Nadia (Kidman) follow her from Russia.

To give away much more would be a bit of a spoiler, the fun of the movie being the uncertainty of what is around the corner for the main characters... Or at least that's what I'm meant to say about a thriller. But Birthday Girl is also a romance and a comedy, and it is perhaps these aspects that work better here.

If memory serves me correctly, Birthday Girl was made just before Moulin Rouge and The Others, but released just afterward. So if you want to see the last non-megastarlet performance from Kidman, this is where it's at. Of course, you could interpret the late release as a marketing ploy by the producers to ride Kidman's fame, as there isn't much else to the movie; but that would be cynical!