My Life in Ruins

A Greek-American living in Athens (Nia Vardalos) works as a tour guide while hoping to land a college teaching job back in the States; the thing is, while she is proud of her ancient Greek heritage, she’s not all that fond of modern Greece, and she can barely tolerate her tourist clientele. Mike Reiss’ script might have been called My Big Fat Greek Guided Tour, and like Vardalos’ My Big Fat Greek Wedding, this movie has a good and generous heart. But also like Wedding, the good heart contends with a clumsy array of stale jokes, hackneyed characters and clodhopping direction (this time by Donald Petrie), and it’s hard to like the movie as much as you might wish. Richard Dreyfuss co-stars as a wise old coot, and Harland Williams and Saturday Night Live’s Rachel Dratch play (stereo)typical American yokels.