She then meets a man whom she falls in love with, but the problem lies in his not being from her same ethnic and cultural background. This creates turmoil among her extremely traditional family. Her father refuses to accept her new fiance, but insisting that she is in love, she gets her family to accept a non-Greek individual into their family. Unlike It Happened One Night (1934), My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002) shows how culture influences love in our civilization. The relationship between these two individuals, demonstrates how much love means in our society. The underlying concern in this case is how two different cultures could unite to form a mutual one where everyone is happy. The film itself is about the relationship, but the underlying message is that acceptance could come in various forms. Love drives emotions, and these emotions could lead to a resolution among individuals that do not seem to have anything in common. With the growing diversity in the world, different cultures are constantly being joined to each other by means of marriage. This film demonstrates that with love, acceptance is also possible. The external factors in this film did not influence the couple's decision to be with...

In different ways both films showed the extreme reactions to love and relationships. Probably given the different time periods that both films took place in, they give us different results of being in love. It Happened One Night (1934) shows how decisions made on a whim could completely reroute an individual's life. The woman in this movie ran away from her home, family, and father in order to pursue the man that she thought she loved and wanted to be with the rest of her life -- only to find out that she falls in love with another man. My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002) shows the opposite side to love in our culture and how being in love does not necessarily mean that one has to make decisions without thinking them through. This couple decided that their love was worth fighting for, but they confronted their opponents head on and came to a compromise that everyone was happy with. Both of the couples from the films had trouble with their significant others' parents, but decided that for the purpose of the love that they had for one another, it was worth pursuing. Love in this society is about making the correct choices, and in both films, deciding what to do based on the love that is felt between all of these characters, is what comes off as being the underlying theme in these movies.