Substitute "career" for "life" in the title of this stillborn travelogue comedy, and you'll have a succinct verdict on My Big Fat Greek Wedding writer/star Nia Vardalos.
My Life in Ruins (2009)
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Reviews Counted:110
Fresh:11
Rotten:99
Average Rating:3.6/10
Consensus: With stereotypical characters and a shopworn plot, My Life in Ruins is a charmless romantic comedy.
Theatrical Release:Jun 5, 2009 Wide
Box Office: $8,474,608
Synopsis: From Nia Vardalos, writer and star of My Big Fat Greek Wedding, comes the uplifting comedy My Life in Ruins. Georgia (Nia Vardalos) has lost her kefi (Greek for “mojo”). Discouraged by her lack... From Nia Vardalos, writer and star of My Big Fat Greek Wedding, comes the uplifting comedy My Life in Ruins. Georgia (Nia Vardalos) has lost her kefi (Greek for “mojo”). Discouraged by her lack of direction in life, she works as a travel guide, leading a rag-tag group of tourists as she tries to show them the beauty of her native Greece while waiting to land her dream job. Opening their eyes to an exotic foreign land, she too begins to see things in new ways—finding her kefi and possibly love in the process. --© Fox Searchlight [More]
Starring: Nia Vardalos, Richard Dreyfuss, Maria Adanez, Sheila Bernette
Starring: Nia Vardalos, Richard Dreyfuss, Maria Adanez, Sheila Bernette, Maria Botto, Rachel Dratch, Alexis Georgoulis, Ralph Nossek, Bernice Stegers, Harland Williams, Ian Gomez
Director: Donald Petrie
Director: Donald Petrie
Screenwriter: Mike Reiss
Producer: Michelle Chyzdik Smith, Nathalie Marciano
Composer: David Newman
Studio: Fox Searchlight Pictures
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Reviews for My Life in Ruins
So why did I have such a good time at such a spectacularly middling movie? Nia Vardalos.
It feels like an uncomfortable parade of Borscht belt gags and lame stereotypes.
In this utterly formulaic romantic comedy, even Greece's gorgeous sites and Vardalos' mildly appealing persona can't compensate for the pile of national stereotypes and cultural cliches (stuffy Brits, boozy Aussies, loudmouthed Yanks).
What you wind up with is a comedy in ruins with the one exception of Richard Dreyfus, who plays a widowed jokester with such class and warmth, you can almost start liking American tourists again. Almost.
The film has the feel of a vaudeville show, with a series of stock characters entering and exiting, hamming for the camera as they go.
Nia Vardalos, whose breakthrough came with the smash indie stunner My Big Fat Greek Wedding, again carries her lead role, but this vehicle feels far more manufactured and forced.
It's not that this premise is so altogether improbable -- what tourist hasn't bonded with strangers while sharing close quarters in a foreign land? -- but that it feels tired from the start.
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