Movie Review - My Life in Ruins (2009)

Starring Nia Vardalos and Richard Dreyfuss
Written by Mike Reiss
Directed by Donald Petrie

If you ever wondered about the movie-going differences between men and women, this movie is a perfect experiment. I watched this movie with two ladies and another guy and while the two ladies were laughing and longing for the characters to hook up (I definitely heard "Just kiss him already" during a scene), me and my fellow 'Y' chromosome holder were rolling our eyes and longing for the movie to be over (I realize I'm putting words into his mouth, but I think it's a pretty damn safe assumption). There's just nothing here to appeal to the male psyche at all. Are we really that different in our approaches to love? I don't know, but this movie didn't help prove that we're similar, that's for sure.

It also doesn't help that the movie is junk.

Georgia (Nia Vardalos) is an American working as a bus tour guide in Greece. She hates her job, hates her boss, and longs to return to the States. Georgia's boss hates her, too, and gives her the stupidest, most stereotypical group of tourists ever imaginable. You've got the dumb Americans who believe their country is the best (FYI...these two were the worst, most poorly written characters I've seen onscreen this year); the Australians who are never seen without a Foster's (Australian for beer, you know) in their hands; the uppity stick-up-their ass British family; the wise Jewish widow (Dreyfuss); the strung-out American businessman who is constantly on his cell phone; the fat, jolly American kid who makes up for being overweight by being incredibly funny all the time (you know that sitcom character, don't you...we've seen it before); and the "hot" Spanish divorcées (except that they weren't hot at all and one of them looked like a transvestite). Throw in an apparently hunky Greek driver so that our lead can fall in love with him (and then Greece itself, in turn), and you've got yourself a movie -- or at least an awful sitcom which is what this movie really is.

Even if the story weren't so damn awful, the direction of this movie was pitiful. There were scenes that were shot through a blurry lens. The director/editor simply didn't care here...there's no excuse for you to have blurry, poorly lit shots in your film. No excuse at all. Plus, this movie should be a love letter to Greece and the director did nothing to entice me to go there. All the shots of the temples and beaches were so bland and boring. At least make the place look pretty.

The only thing that remotely saves this movie is the fact that Nia Vardalos is actually okay. Don't get me wrong, she does nothing to impress here and her comedic timing is simply middle of the road. But were it not for her, this would've been even more of a trainwreck than it already was.

The RyMickey Rating: D-