My Life in Ruins – DVD Review

Film, Reviews

MyLifeinRuins

Nia Vardalos has been riding the success of her indie smash hit My Big Fat Greek Wedding since it was released in 2002. Seven years later she attempts to recreate that success by releasing another romantic comedy that centers on her Greek background, My Life In Ruins. Instead of the raving reviews My Big Fat Greek Wedding enjoyed, this one was critically panned and had a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it theatrical release. But was it really as bad as they say?

Georgia (Vardalos) is a tour guide in Greece. She initially moved to Greece on a whim, to be spontaneous and exciting, but instead spends all her time moping about her pathetic job and wishing she’d get accepted as a teacher to a school (any school) in the States. Her boss doesn’t like her because the tourists don’t like her. Everyone would rather have Nico as their tour guide, since he knows how to have fun and his bus has air conditioning. So Georgia gets saddled with all the stereotypical tourists – the annoying Americans, the happy but hard to understand Australians, the wealthy snobby British, and the divorcees who hate men but are still looking for one – and the “creepy ugly creepy” bus driver name Poupi (pronounced poopy). Guess what his last name is? Kakas. Poupi Kakas. It’s about as funny in the movie as it is here.

During their very long tour, Georgia and the tourists end up fighting, hating each other, and then making up and eventually having a wonderful time. Georgia learns a lot about herself from one of the tourists, Irv (Richard Dreyfuss), who is traveling alone. The two form a special friendship, and Irv even becomes the tour’s resident joke-teller and overall mood lifter. Georgia even finds love during the tour, in the least likely of person.
Everything about this movie is predictable, from the plot to the dialogue. The first half of the movie is incredibly slow moving and eye-rollingly bad, but once it gets going, the movie really isn’t all that bad. Isn’t that one of the main draws to a romantic comedy? That it’s predictable? Nia Vardalos has made a career out of being the fat, normal looking girl who gets the guy, and yes her shtick is wearing a little thin. But isn’t Matthew McConaughey’s? Or Sandra Bullock’s? There’s really nothing here that’s worse than anything you’ve seen in a dozen other romantic comedies.

My Life In Ruins isn’t going to reinvent the wheel or Nia Vardalos’s career. But it’s a pleasant little romantic comedy that will do everything that it should: make you laugh, make you groan, roll your eyes, but ultimately make you feel good once the credits roll.

The video quality of this DVD is spectacular. Or perhaps it was just the gorgeous scenery in the movie that distracted me. The video is a 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The sound was clear, no complaints there. English, French, and Spanish subtitles are available.

Three Commentary tracks, each of them by solo participants: Nia Vardalos, director Donald Petrie and writer Mike Keiss. My question is are three separate commentaries even necessary?

Deleted and Alternate Scenes (with optional commentary by director Donald Petrie) – There are 7 deleted scenes and an alternate ending that was a cool idea but terribly executed.

Everybody Loves Poupi – Yes, everybody does. Ladies, this is your chance to watch Poupi’s scenes edited together. Many scenes of him shirtless on the beach.

TrailersI Love You, Beth Cooper, (500) Days of Summer, Post Grad, Bride Wars, Love’s Franchise, and a Watch Romantic Favorites commercial

What girl doesn’t want to see the chubby normal looking girl get a hot guy like Poupi (don’t let the name fool you) and watch some beautiful Mediterranean scenery? Recommended for a girl’s night in; you could do a lot worse than My Life In Ruins.


20th Century Fox presents My Life In Ruins. Directed by: Donald Petrie. Starring: Nia Vardalos, Richard Dreyfuss, Rachel Dratch. Written by: Mike Reiss. Running time: 95 minutes. Rating: PG-13. Released on DVD: October 6, 2009. Available at Amazon.com

Jenny is proud to be the First Lady of Inside Pulse Movies. She gives female and mommy perspective, and has two kids who help with rating family movies. (If they don't like 'em, what's the point?) She prefers horror movies to chick flicks, and she can easily hang with the guys as long as there are several frou-frou girlie drinks to be had.