The original My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002) followed the journey of Fotoula “Toula” Portokalos (Nia Vardalos), a shy woman surrounded by boisterous personalities. Freshly turned 30, she works for her Greek immigrant parents in the family’s restaurant, has always done so, and has little hope of achieving any of her other dreams. To overcome her parents’ and her culture’s expectations, Toula courageously enrolls in college to learn computer technology. This leads to her landing a new job and more independence. For the first time in her family’s history, she also begins dating a kind, non-Greek man named Ian (played by John Corbett). Her big personal leaps lead to a whole new, happier her, true love, and of course, the titular big fat Greek wedding.

In the second My Big Fat Greek Wedding movie, Gus and matriarch Maria get remarried (their original certificate was never signed), Ian and Toula renew their vows, and their daughter Paris goes to prom and then college. This movie starts after Gus’s death, and the family’s observance of his final wish: for everyone to return to the village where he grew up and meet the cousins and friends he left behind.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 is uproarious with much of the same family comedy and joy that made the first and second movies stand out. The films have always had beautiful and ahead-of-their-time messages for audiences about cultural acceptance, heritage, and tradition, as well as women’s rights. In the third film, the Portokalos family takes a trip to Greece for a reunion with their extended Greek family—the final wish of patriarch Gus, who has passed away. (The real-life actor who played Gus, Michael Constantine, passed in 2021.) While Toula and Ian search for Gus’s childhood friends, love blossoms between Aristotle and Paris (which is an unwelcome development to Paris, who had ghosted Aristotle before the trip), and Aunt Voula continues to be Aunt Voula, the most hilarious member of the Portokalos family