> My Life in Ruins
Director: Donald Petrie
Cast: Nia Vardalos, Richard Dreyfuss, Alexis Georgoulis, Alistair McGowan, Harland Williams, Rachel Dratch, Caroline Goodall, Ian Ogilvy, Brian Palermo, Sheila Bernette
Rating: (PG)
4 stars (out of 5)
Reviewed By Christine Powley
When the play Nia Vardalos wrote about her Greek background became a smash-hit film, it must have been wonderful.
Yet over time the success of My Big Fat Greek Wedding has become a millstone around her neck.
The public will never love her as much in anything else and the critics are waiting to stick the knife in.
In My Life in Ruins (Rialto) Vardalos plays Georgia, a Greek American who went to Athens for adventure and ended up as a guide at a cheapo tour company.
Georgia believes all tours are the same because the tourists are all interchangeable.
There are always the old people, the snobby English, the loud Americans, the drunken Australians and an annoying funny guy.
This time she has a substitute driver, Poupi (Alexis Georgoulis), a monosyllabic guy lost behind a forest of hair.
Then Poupi shaves his beard off and surprise, there is a hunk lurking beneath.
Georgia starts to relax and gets to know her group as real people.
There is nothing original in any of this, except it is all played out against a stunning background of ancient Greek monuments.
I laughed a little, I shed a tear or two and when I left the theatre the sun was shining and I found myself smiling the rest of the day. So, My Life in Ruins is not the greatest movie, but if it can make you feel happy that is not to be sneezed at.
Best thing: All those ancient Grecian monuments are so sun-drenched and beautiful you want to go there immediately.
Worst thing: Most of the characters start off as caricatures and gain depth, but the poor boozing Aussies never emerge from behind their tins of Foster's.
See it with: A relaxed attitude. This one is a slow starter.
