The script for this film, written by the lead actress, is very funny, even though it covers familiar ground.
It confirmed for me a valuable lesson for the writer: find the gold in your idea and stick with it.
This is a love story. Yet, unlike the normal Hollywood love story, there is almost no time spent on the courtship.
Why? Because the writer understood that the comic gold in this idea is the contrast of the crazy Greek family and her WASP boyfriend and parents.
The lead character is quite normal relative to her family. So the moments between her and her almost perfect boyfriend, while sweet, produce little comedy.
Best to get that stuff out of the way as quickly as possible so the real comic machine can produce as many laughs as possible. The result is a very funny indie hit.
Is this actually a romantic comedy story? From my homework calculations, I thought it was fundamentally a myth-comedy mixed with some romantic-comedy beats. Although, considering JT created this analysis framework, I’m almost certainly wrong! Anyway, here are my workings:
The opposition in a romantic-comedy is supposed to be the lover (ideally with their own need – to overcome their inability to love), but here the lover showed no opposition during the courtship or in the plans for a longer-term relationship. He accommodated at every turn. This meant a battle never occurred between them (and hence why the courtship was so short).
I thought instead the main opposition was the father, who’s insistence on Greek tradition opposed her gaining and securing her long-term WASP lover. And so the battle here was in the hero’s decision to marry the lover against her father’s wishes.