My life in ruins
Language : English / Greek
Year of release : 2009
Run time : 1h35m
Genre : Romance / Comedy
Cast : Nia Vardalos, Richard Dreyfuss, Rachel Dratch
Georgia is a Greek-American teacher, who moved to Greece to teach the classics at Athens University,but due to cutbacks, she ended up being a tour guide.
She has a boss who gives her the worst tourists (who give her bad reviews), and gives the best to her colleague who gives her gifts.
She gets a driver who looks disheveled and she thinks can’t speak English.
Her group is not interested in hearing about ancient Greece (I would love to hear it), they just want to walk around and buy things.
Their bus’ air conditioning is broken, and it’s hot in Greece, thing which makes them cranky.
Her group has an old kleptomaniac who steals souvenirs from every shop, Australians who’s accent nobody can understand who keep on drinking, Americans who call her Angie, a guy who works at IHOP and is obsessed with it , and an old man who thinks he’s funny.
On top of this, her colleague is trying to steal or turn her group against her.
If that wasn’t enough, they get the worst hotel, which’s elevator keeps on breaking down, and which’s rooms have doors opening into one another.
Georgia has had enough of it, and writes an angry letter to her boss, deciding to quit after this, and go back to the US.
Her driver, Poupi Kakas, seems to like her, and enjoy her company, listening to her speak.
On the first day she finds a flower on her seat, and she thinks it’s from the IHOP guy.
On the second day she finds out the funny guy cracks unfunny jokes because his wife is dead, and they used to take trips together, and he misses her. She gets to talk to him, and actually enjoy his company, and the rest of the group start to think whatever he says starts to happen, so they trust him with his word whenever they want good things to happen.
Because all her group wants to do is shop, eat ice cream and go to the beach, because it’s too hot (ironically they wear a lot of clothes, like jackets and coats), she takes them shopping and to the beach.
Slowly, she starts to get to know them, and starts to like them, and the other way around.
I personally enjoyed the movie. I liked the first part more than the second.
Georgia loves Greece, but she feels the love is not reciprocated, until she meets Poupi, and develops a good relationship with her group, and changes her mind.
Also, it’s obvious Poupi likes her, but she is too busy not noticing it.
Her colleague at the travel agency is annoying.
The acting is good.
The soundtrack has Greek influences and Greek musical artists.
The movie was produced by Tom Hanks, and directed by Donald Petrie who is known for directing romantic comedies like Miss Congeniality, How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days, Just My Luck.
The movie holds a 6 out of 10 rating on IMDB, a 44% popcorn meter on Rotten Tomatoes, and a 7.8 user score on Metacritic.
The movie grossed 20.5 million dollars at the box office, against a 17 million dollars budget.
You can watch the full movie for free, if you follow this link :
https://ok.ru/video/7349656029806
Rating : Worth a watch !