MY LIFE IN RUINS (DRIVING APHRODITE)

US, 2009, 98 minutes, Colour.
Nia Vardalos, Richard Dreyfuss, Alexis Georgoulis, Alistair Mc Gowan, Caroline Goodall, Ian Ogilvy.
Directed by Donald Petrie.

Perhaps My Life in Ruins sounds too much of a downer but, for some overseas countries, the title was changed to Driving Aphrodite, which may not do much to help the film at the box office either.

This is the kind of romantic comedy that they say they don't make any more (apart from some innuendo and some more contemporary relational behaviour). It is a sunny film and not just because it was filmed mainly in Greece.

Nia Vardalos will forever be remembered as the woman from My Big Fat Greek Wedding. This film is much lighter and slighter – but in the same vein.

Nia Vardalos plays Georgia, a tourist guide in Athens, who has lost her university teaching job but takes some of the same methods of explaining facts and dates to impose on her tourists (who, oddball as they are, seem to prefer shopping souvenirs and mucking around which makes one wonder why they came to Greece in the first place). She decides she is on her last tour, stuck with the oddballs on an old bus where the air conditioning doesn't work, where the hairy, bearded driver seems to speak no English and the tourists, Group B, are bored with her commentaries and would much rather be in Group A with the ingratiating guide, Nico (Alistair McGowan). On the face of it, it doesn't seem likely that Georgia can or will change. But, we know she will.

The driver does speak English, likes her and shaves his beard. The joker in the group, Irv (Richard Dreyfuss), is the wise old man (who lapses rather egregiously with two of the Spanish divorcees on board) who suggests how Georgia might mellow, change and become more human (and endearing to the tourists). Actually, he does it for most of the group in a sentimental scene at the oracle of Delphi.

There are some funny moments and lines, though not uproarious comedy, especially with an elderly English lady who excels in shoplifting. There are the very American couple, the boring US executive who is on his mobile phone all the time, an English prissy couple with a moody teenage daughter, a fat naïve young American...

But, there is great appeal in the Greek scenery and in Nia Vardalos' vivacity.

Those who have visited Greece and, especially, those who have done guided bus tours will resonate with it.

1.Light comedy? Life, career, work, change?

2.The title? Georgia’s life in ruins, life among the ruins of Greece? The alternate title, Driving Aphrodite?

3.Picturesque Greece, Athens, the Parthenon, the countryside, Olympia, Delphi? The beach (filmed in Spain)? The musical score, songs, dance, Zorba the Greek, Never on Sunday?

4.The interiors, the tourist offices, hotels, buses?

5.Georgia and her voice-over, her background, university work in Athens, fired, looking for a job, as a tourist guide, the rivalry with Niko, the interactions with Maria? Her favouring Niko, giving him the better groups, buses? The questionnaires on Georgia’s work – average? Her decision to resign?

6.Georgia in herself, her age, relationships, isolated, talking aloud about herself, Poupi and his wild hair, as the driver, discovering he spoke English? Her studious attitude, love for the history, the past, dates? Others and their response? Her ticking off the caricature tourists on the bus? The various trips, her not being very friendly? Niko and the old bus, no air-conditioning? Niko bringing gifts – to the wrong bus? Dorcas and her gifts? Georgia’s exasperation, the lift not working? The interaction with the clerk in the hotel, the extra charge for the letter, his spilling coffee on it?

7.Niko, his group, his giving doughnuts, taking people shopping, the more frivolous aspects of the tour? Rivalry with Georgia? His getting more money? Giving the T-shirt to the young American? His discovering what it meant, the fight, in the pool? Georgia and co stealing the air-conditioning? His being upset, leaving, Maria dismissing him?

8.Irv, Richard Dreyfuss’s style? The jokes, his age, the trip, a tourist of long standing, his wife’s death, Georgia’s faux pas? His encouraging Georgia, her giving him the ice cream? Steering her the Poupi, away from the American expert? His relationship with the girls in the hotel? On the beach, his imagining his wife and talking with her? The turn, hospital, everybody visiting him? His role in Delphi – being the oracle, answering everyone’s questions? The sage?

9.The tourists, the boring American man and his talk about pancakes etc, the American couple and their being ignorantly American? The two Spanish divorcees, looking at all the men? With Irv? The bargaining? Dorcas and Barnaby, his Zimmer, her capacity for shoplifting? The fat American man, the T-shirt, the flirting by the homosexuals and his discovering what the Greek on his shirt meant? The British family, the uptight doctor, the husband and his criticisms of his wife, the daughter and her moodiness? Her being attracted by Poupi’s nephew? Their all opening up?

10.Poupi, his hair, shaving, the daisies for Georgia and her misunderstanding? The attraction, his shock at her telling the stories and crashing the bus? His philosophy of being a driver, the poetry of the scenery? Their talks, the meal, the relationship? Georgia and her future and decisions?

11.The tourists bored by the commentary, preferring to go shopping, playing games at Olympia, fooling around? The change of heart when Georgia was more credible, going to the Parthenon, listening to the winds through the columns?

12.Georgia, her changing, mellowing, supervised by Irv, the sexual relationship with Poupi, the crash, giving the ice cream to Irv, its being on her jacket, burning it at the barbeque?

13.The Delphi sequence, the various tourists and their problems, Irv’s answer?

14.The change, the tour group appreciating her, the possibility of a job in America, deciding to stay?

15.The contemporary tone to an old-fashioned romantic story? Behaviour, morals? Hopes? The comic touch?