Two decades after the franchise-inaugurating nuptials of Toula (played by writer-director Nia Vardalos), she’s leading the Greek-American Portokalos clan back to the homeland for the first time. Their mission is to fulfil their pappou’s dying wish (actor Michael Constantine died in 2021) and give his diaries to his childhood friends. That means another sloppy helping of migrant family cliches, served up with the same loving forcefulness as grandma’s moussaka.
This is mostly Greece as seen in the movies, of course, familiar from Mamma Mia! and, before that, Shirley Valentine. It’s a place of postcard-perfect blue-and-white vistas, where hospitality verges on hostage-taking and any suggestion of vegetarianism is vociferously resisted. Surprisingly, there are also some sweet but entirely superficial nods to the nation’s present day, such as a storyline about the integration of Syrian refugees and new character Victory (Melina Kotselou), the non-binary mayor of Toula’s ancestral village.
