No travel budget for this summer? Forced to abandon your plans for a trip to Greece?
A possible solution is "My Life in Ruins," little more than a glorified travelogue, but with Nia Vardalos, probably the most famous Greek actor since Telly Savalas or Melina Mercouri, as an American teacher, now a down-on-her-luck, depressed tour guide in Athens, looking for love or a job, and a raise, though she’ll find a pink slip in her pay envelope long before she sees any extra cash in it.
But ever courageous, Georgia (the Vardalos character) saddles up for one more bus ride, where she meets a new driver, Poupi, nicely portrayed by the handsome Alexis Georgoulis. She also meets Irv (Richard Dreyfuss), Big Al (Harland Williams) and his wife, Kim (Rachel Dratch), the adolescent Caitlin (Sophie Stuckey) and the talented Dorcas (Sheila Bernette).
Georgia is not an incompetent tour guide, but she tends toward the pedantic when she speaks of ruins, and she’s slow on the uptake when it comes to what her customers want, and she’s even slower in figuring out that the moon-struck expression on Poupi’s face is not just sunburn. After an embarrassing beginning to the relationship, Georgia finds herself listening to Irv’s advice, and he becomes sort of like a fairy godfather. Even Caitlin sheds her customary glum expression when he gets involved, and the high spot of the film, as far as I’m concerned, is the wonderful talent shown by Dorcas, a little old English lady who acts as if she trained under Ricky Jay.
Screenwriter Mike Reiss put together this collection of cliches and director Donald Petrie delivered passably. But Petrie always gets a pass from me; he not only directed one of the finest little movies of the past 30 years but also gave Julia Roberts her breakout role and perhaps her best and most appealing performance. Anyone remember "Mystic Pizza"?
Opens today at multiple locations.
-Joe