Since Nia Vardalos wrote and starred in My Big Fat Greek Wedding in 2002, the actress looks like she has shed about 10kg. Alas, her new film shows she’s also lost some other key traits, namely freshness, lack of vanity and the ability to make us laugh.
The Greek theme continues in My Life in Ruins but the leaden script by Mike Reiss, uninspired direction by Donald Petrie and dreadful over-acting combine to make this a teeth-grinding disappointment.
The Greek Ministry of Tourism can be grateful that this limp comedy bombed in the US and will likely meet a similar fate in Oz and elsewhere, for Greece never looked so dull and unromantic.
In just her second outing since her breakthrough movie (the other was the largely unseen Connie and Carla), Nia plays Georgia, a Greek/American history professor who loses her job and is forced to make ends meet by working as a tour guide based in Athens.
Her smarmy rival Nico (Alistair McGowan) gets the new coach and a bunch of well-behaved Canadian tourists, while poor Georgia is saddled with an over-heated jalopy filled with ghastly stereotypes including a boozy, clueless Australian couple, snobbish Poms and their rebellious teenage daughter, obnoxious Americans, a kleptomaniac, a fat schlub and sultry Spanish divorcees.
Injecting a tiny amount of class and heart into this highly contrived cultural hodgepodge is Richard Dreyfuss as Irv, a Viagra-popping, wise-cracking widower who turns literally into the Oracle of Delphi, dispensing homilies through a hole in the stone.
The thin excuse for a plot poses several questions with predictable answers: will Nico succeed in his quest to get Georgia fired by sabotaging her tour?; how long will it take for Georgia to fall for the charms of her hunky, bearded bus driver Poupi Kakas (Alexis Georgoulis)?; at what point will everyone start dancing to the strains of Zorba the Greek?; and will anyone ever say and do anything amusing? Rarely, is my response to the final question.
As a measure of the filmmakers’ desperation, the bus driver’s name is supposed to be the subject of a running joke. Reiss, who earns his living writing for The Simpsons, goes for cheap and obvious gags but seldom hits the mark. Georgia is repeatedly told she’s not funny and so is Irv, which is undeniable, so why give both actors so little to work with?
Strutting around in high heels, thigh-baring skirts and the sort of coiffure favoured by Sarah Palin, Vardalos is often called on to look pained, embarrassed or uncomfortable, and I can see why. After this effort, it’s her career that could be in ruins.
I will refrain from naming the Australian actors who play the witless Aussies, who are forced to utter banalities and rhyming slang which suggests Reiss may have watched The Adventures of Barry Mackenzie but is otherwise ignorant of our Ocker sub-culture.
It’s sad to think that Petrie, the director of Miss Congeniality, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days and Grumpy Old Men, could sink to this level of mediocre tosh. Any Greeks who stumble on this film might feel insulted because apart from Poupi, their race is portrayed as lazy, lecherous peddlers who are happy to rip off the tourists.
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