Souvlaki and
stereotypes

Nia Vardalos stars as soul-searching tour
guide in tired romcom My Life in Ruins

GREEK TRAGEDY: Vardalos

by CHRISTOPHER SYKES

The romantic comedy is one of those genres that’s incessantly poo-pooed by critics, yet has a diehard following willing to splash disposable income regardless of economic downturns. Nia Vardalos, the star of the new romcom My Life in Ruins, should know: the charming Greek-Canadian rocketted from obscurity to superstardom after the unexpected worldwide success of 2002’s My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

All but reprising the role that made her famous, Vardalos stars as Georgia, a good-hearted Greek-American searching for happiness in Greece. Employed as an overly academic tour guide, Vardalos is put in charge of the undesirables who’ve nevertheless fronted her employer the necessary fees. While the premise alone should be enough of a warning flag, it’s the painfully stereotypical melange of outlandish tourists and low-brow writing that left my morning in ruins.

Accompanying Vardalos are beer-chugging Aussies intent on bewildering as many as possible with their Cockney rhyming slang and an upper middle-class British family where the snarky wife passive-aggressively dons the trousers in the relationship. This to name only a fraction of the motley crew. There’s even the overly polite, flag bearing Canucks shown around by Vardalos’s rival guide Niko (Alistair McGowen).

Worst of all, stereotypically speaking, are the Americans. Canadian goofball Harland Williams and ex-SNL stalwart Rachel Dratch play a recently married couple of red state hillbillies in search of the kitschiest souvenirs Euros can buy. It’s all oh-so-tired and far too easy.

The bright spot (and it’s charitable to use the word regarding anything but the scenery) is Richard Dreyfuss’s rendition of recently widowed golden ager Irv. A vocal Jewish-American who thinks his stand-up skills are on par with Johnny Carson’s, Dreyfuss is also the voice of reason in the pic, encouraging Vardalos to live a little.

This, one might guess, leads to a transparent love affair with her driver, Poupi (Alexis Georgoulis). His nickname is pronounced exactly as one would expect, and sums up how frantic the scribes are for cheap laughs. That writer Mike Reiss (The Simpsons) had a hand in Ruins is at first perplexing, but when you think of the quality of the past few seasons in Springfield, it makes perfect sense.

MY LIFE IN RUINS OPENS THIS
FRIDAY, JUNE 5