Think of Shirley Valentine and take away charm, wit, realism and Pauline Collins.
My Life in Ruins (2009)
Tomatometer
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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.
Australian Rating: PG [See Full Rating] Mild sexual references and coarse language
Runtime: 1 hr 35 mins
Genre: Comedies
Australian Theatrical Release:
Jul 16, 2009 Wide
US 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
Reviews for My Life in Ruins
This laboured romantic comedy has little to recommend it beyond the picture-postcard locations.
What a comforting fable to warm us as the evenings draw in. Away with cynicism! Enjoy if you can. The cast look as if they did.
This mess - henceforth to be known as My Big Fat Greek Tragedy - is the most embarrassing thing to come out of the Eastern Med since Prince Philip.
Vardalos' charming and likeable presence ensures that this is just about watchable, but it's painfully unfunny and the script is full of horrible cliches and lazy stereotypes.
While there are some witty observations along the way, this tourism rom-com is so resolutely unromantic and unfunny that it feels like a package holiday during which you have to share a hotel room with the group clown.
Vardalos doesn't help her case by making her big screen comeback in something so sitcom-level.
The words 'Starring Richard Dreyfuss' are a deal-breaker in my books, and it took a good 30 minutes after seeing them to unclench and enjoy My Life in Ruins.
Every character encountered is cookie-cutter, every romance predictable, every punch line older than Richard Dreyfuss' Yoda-like character looks.
A subtext of self-criticism runs through Vardalos's material. Over and over characters tell her, "You're not funny. Stop trying." Is it a sort of apology to the audience?
If much of the inane beginning had been re-worked, "Life"could have been a much better film.
Here's another sexed-up TV movie that has hit the big screen, mostly because of the name recognition of its two major stars.
An aggressively awful opening 20 minutes gives way to over-the-top characterizations and an increasingly wan series of bits aping film moments we've all seen before, executed with more grace and charm.
As a laughing-through-tears jokester tourist, Richard Dreyfuss provides the only moments of real acting, as opposed to overacting, mugging, and scenery chomping.
That they should learn Greek dancing from a Mexican-born actor in a film produced by 20th Century Fox is somehow less ironic than just about right for a movie like this.
Nia Vardalos is a charmer but this movie with Greece as the backdrop is no 'Greek Wedding'
[A] steaming pile of stereotypes and sitcomery, a pathetic excuse for a comedy, a romance, and a movie.
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