Directed by Donald Petrie, written by Mike Reiss
Rating: 7/10
Summary: Modest, charming, and well-done, "My Life in Ruins” grows on you. That’s because Nia Vardalos nails Georgia’s low-level anguish at the path her life has taken and because director Donald Petrie keeps things from spinning out of control.
Story: Greek-American professor, Georgia (Nia Vardalos, laid off from her teaching position at an American university, works as a tour guide in Athens. She’s lost her mojo. Her boss doesn’t like her because her evaluations are far from stellar. Her competition at work is wildly popular because he panders to his clients’ needs, namely, to couple, eat ice cream and buy overpriced souvenirs.
During a tour-from-hell, she succumbs to the charismatic sway of the Greek way of life and learns that dancing, singing, and loving are better than fretting, thinking, and philosophizing.
She embarks on her own odyssey with a group that fulfills every imaginable national stereotype. The first part of the multi-day journey is a disaster. Their bus doesn’t have air conditioning. Georgia doesn’t connect with the tourists because she insists on providing a running commentary on ruins, churches, and history.
During the second part, however, the group comes together when Georgia gives up and lets them run wild. The ending is sweet when Georgia finds her groove and decides not to take a teaching job in America. She resolves to stop trying to control her life and let life simply come to her
Analysis: Even with the stereotypes, this is a cute film. Vardalos is convincing as a woman of a certain age, still attractive, still wanting to live life to the fullest. We connect with her doldrums and thus, when she starts smiling and having fun, her joy is our joy.
The film makes modest demands on the audience and in this respect it doesn’t disappoint. It doesn’t make any high-falutin’ statements about illiteracy or the common rabble. All that’s a backdrop for a story of a woman who’s lost her way. The actors portray their various idiosyncratic characters with great spirit. At first they conspire into One Big Mess but they also unexpectedly come together when they need to. Alex Georgoulis’s Pupi is an adorable hulk of a Greek local who tries, without success, to get Georgia to sit and drink coffee, which is Greek code for letting life wash over her. Their romance develops slowly – she doesn’t realize he shaved his beard for her – and, at the end, passionately.
The Bottom Line: “My Life in Ruins” is a pleasant summer film that will appeal to the whole family, and not just women. Like “The Hangover,” it doesn’t require a lot of thinking or analysis. This slow-motion love story is layered with a lot of funny scenes enacted by funny characters. All you need to enjoy this film is to have experienced disenchantment with your life-to-date, to feel stuck and frustrated, to despair at what your future has in store for you.
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