- Nia Vardalos is always fun to watch. I never believed her "kefi" was gone for long.
- It's quick-paced, recently trimmed from a longer original version.
- Greek islands are just flipped by as postcards - this is a mainland movie.
- "Zorba the Greek" deserved better than a sleazy hotelkeeper as an avatar of the Quinn kefi.
- Rita Wilson is wasted on a touching but too-tiny cameo.
- Nia Vardalos looks better - and younger - than she did in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding". Mamma Nia!
- Tour bus driver Poupi - played by Alexis Georgoulis - cleans up very, very well. Best wet chest shot since Colin Firth.
- Some say the characters are stereotyped - and this may be true. But you'll meet them all in Greece.
Mainly through the power of bad jokes, he nudges Georgia into enhancing her "kefi", the mysterious and enlivening power of being Greek - or, if you're lucky, of just being in Greece. What follows includes a slow striptease of hair from the furry bus driver with the unfortunate name of Poupi Kakas, a mended relationship or two, and a happy day at a beach rather than a trek through another museum. There's a surprisingly touching scene with Richard Dreyfuss, and some lovely glimpses of Greece.
The "My Life in Ruins" movie locations include Delphi, Olympia, and many places in Athens
. The movie is shot in an intimate, close-up style - great for the actors but not as great for Greece. It made me yearn to go home and watch Visions of Greece, which is shot from a helicopter.
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