I wanted to like this movie! I was pumped and ready. I wanted My Big Fat Greek Wedding. I didn't get it although I did love the music and the scenery. The movie opens with a 20 year old girl, Sophie, who is about to be wed. Unbeknownst to her mother, she has invited three men, one of whom she believes may be her father, to attend her wedding on the Greek island where she lives. This movie is about Sophie's longing for a father and how that issue gets resolved.
My interest in film is in spiritual connections, seeing the metaphors for God and humanity and how those issues play out in the movie. Sophie's longing for a father is one of the primal longings of all humans. We all long for our father's blessing; in fact, it is the reason why most people go into the ministry. The Psalms are full of prayers of longing for God. Consider Psalm 13:1-2: How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?
We think our longings can be satisfied with other things - people, food, material goods, drugs, alcohol, all manner of addictions. Longings can be appeased with these for a while, but ultimately only God can satisfy our deepest longings. There are many who believe that when we find our truest self, we shall also find God. Perhaps that happened for Sophie at her almost wedding; it was left unclear, and the movie bobbled for me then. I also didn't like the way the clergyman was portrayed - old, irrelevant, clueless and bumbling. The word for wisdom in the Greek is Sophia. Sophie didn't seem to have much of that, even though it was her namesake.
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