My Life in Ruins

Though armed with a number of charismatic performances, My Life in Ruins primarily comes off as a hopelessly corny romantic comedy that boasts a myriad of jokes and gags that wouldn’t pass muster on the hackiest of sitcoms. The movie casts Nia Vardalos as Georgia, an American living and working in Greece as a tour guide who impulsively decides to move back home following one last jaunt around the picturesque countryside. Georgia’s latest batch of clients – including Richard Dreyfuss’ scrappy Irv, Harland Williams’ obnoxious Big Al, and Caroline Goodall’s stuffy Dr. Tullen – inevitably force the homesick single gal to reevaluate her decision, as they slowly-but-surely teach her a series of life lessons that lead directly into a burgeoning relationship with hunky bus driver Poupi (Alexis Georgoulis). It’s a familiar premise that’s initially employed to entirely underwhelming effect by filmmaker Donald Petrie, as the director – working from Mike Reiss’ screenplay – places a consistent emphasis on eye-rollingly unsubtle elements that are exacerbated by the presence of characters that are almost uniformly one note. It subsequently goes without saying that the talented cast – Dreyfuss is all but retired and this is what he chooses to do? – is generally left floundering amid a sea of exasperating clichés and stereotypes, yet there’s little doubt that the increasingly affable atmosphere does ensure that the movie improves ever-so-slightly slightly as it progresses. The almost comically upbeat nature of My Life in Ruins‘ conclusion – virtually every character receives their own personal happy ending – leaves the viewer almost willing to forgive the ineffectiveness of that which preceded it, although it’d surely take a lot more than a pleasant finale to erase the memory of the film’s aggressively unwatchable opening hour.

** out of ****