Who's In It: Nia Vardalos, John Corbett, Rachel Dratch, Judah Friedlander
The Basics: A florist with more than just a monetary interest in the 14th of February--she chirps, "Happy Valentine's Day!" to strangers and hands out free chocolates to everyone like a chaste, semi-erotic Santa Claus--believes that no-strings romance is all anyone needs and that it shouldn't extend past the fifth date. That way you get to keep your deepest stuff to yourself, no one gets hurt, and your rom-com has a contrived, fakey premise to retest the screen chemistry between Vardalos and her Big Fat Greek Wedding co-star Corbett. Verdict: They're still kind of charming.
What's The Deal: I think Nia Vardalos is a really appealing movie presence but I don't know if she's a good filmmaker or not. I could take this movie as evidence that she isn't. But since it's her directorial debut and, according to the little speech she gave before the film festival screening where I saw it, she had about 35 cents for a budget and about 24 hours to get it all in the can, I'm not going to harsh on her too much. I could blame her for the fact that this movie looks like hell and that she doesn't seem to know where to put people in a frame, but I still laughed at her dialogue, still enjoyed the cheap silliness. That's not to say it's a great movie. It's not. I just can't bring myself to hate it.
Best Part About Seeing It At That Film Festival: During her pre-screening speech she actually told any film critics in the audience who were there "to take a dump on this movie" to "put a cork in it." I suppose I should have been offended, but I couldn't help but laugh at the thought that this movie star just told me to put a cork in my butt. So thanks, Nia Vardalos, you made my work experience more awesome that night. I've never been scolded by any director before seeing their movie, but I'll take your funny verbal abuse over Michael Bay's critic-dismissing smug-itude any day.
Not To Be Confused With: The truly rotten, recently released My Life In Ruins, which only starred Vardalos and was neither written nor directed by her.
Another (Absolutely Non-Objective) Reason I Can't Hate It: My friend Rose has a small role in it. Really small. One scene. But she's funny. It's always a shock to see people you know in movies when you weren't expecting it. It's one of the weirder things about living in Los Angeles and crossing paths with actors. Sometimes they wind up working and you get to give them shout-outs if you happen to have a forum for that sort of thing. Hey Rose!