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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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My Life in Ruins
EMAILPRINTFox Searchlight Pictures

Generally unfavorable reviews
Based on 25 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 21 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Comedy
Written by: Mike Reiss
Directed by: Donald Petrie
Release Date:
Theatrical: June 5, 2009
DVD: October 6, 2009
Running Time: 98 minutes, Color
Origin: USA | Spain
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for sexual content
Starring Nia Vardalos, Richard Dreyfuss, Maria Adanez, Sheila Bernette, Maria Botto, Rachel Dratch, Alexis Georgoulis, and Harland Williams
Georgia has lost her kefi (Greek for "mojo"). Discouraged by her lack of direction in life, she works as a travel guide, leading a rag-tag group of tourists as she tries to show them the beauty of her native Greece while waiting to land her dream job. Opening their eyes to an exotic foreign land, she too begins to see things in new ways—finding her kefi and possibly love in the process. (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Miami Herald Connie Ogle
A pleasant if unremarkable romantic comedy that plays out like a sitcom with great scenery.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
Summery and scenic, Ruins is this season's "Mamma Mia!," a diversion that dispenses the wisdom: Let go, let live, and let love. Not bad advice, and not a bad movie, exactly.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
The film is so brazen about its pandering, crumple-hearted silliness that it had me rooting for Vardalos to land her big fat Greek stud-muffin.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Doris Toumarkine
Ruins is sometimes as sunny as its locations but as familiar and predictable as a Greek diner.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Wesley Morris
The problem with the new movie is the same as with the previous one. Vardalos has this idea that she's a marm. And while it's true that she personifies her movies, I don't quite buy her librarian mode.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
My Life in Ruins will neither ruin nor change nor significantly impact your life.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Kate Taylor
This paint-by-numbers romantic comedy is chock-a-block with jokey stereotypes – Americans are obnoxious, Canadians polite, and the Greeks just dance – yet lacking in any real drama, only occasionally mustering enough charm or humour to rise above a predictable formula.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
Words cannot express how weary I am of watching lifeless, hollow movies like My Life in Ruins - generic romantic comedies that have no clue when it comes to either "romance" or "comedy."
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Glenn Whipp
Doesn't skimp on the life lessons or instant transformations. But the movie primarily exists to give amiable Everywoman Vardalos the chance to regain her kefi.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
Not likely to spur much tourism to Greece. The sights, though impressive, are not photographed interestingly, and the citizens of the host country are less than welcoming.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Jason Buchanan
A benign, mushy gruel that tries desperately to maintain the sticky sweet consistency of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" but ultimately ends up coasting on the "kefi" of that previous success.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
As a laughing-through-tears jokester tourist, Richard Dreyfuss provides the only moments of real acting, as opposed to overacting, mugging, and scenery chomping.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin
Vardalos has brought back the tourist comedy and delivered the dumbed-down "If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium" no one wanted.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
Director Donald Petrie doesn’t have much to brag about here, but at least he gives us some nice scenery to look at.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Rarely has a film centered on a character so superficial and unconvincing, played with such unrelenting sameness. I didn't hate it so much as feel sorry for it.
Read Full Review >New Orleans Times-Picayune Mike Scott
For movie-goers who like a little cleverness with their comedy, however, one word: N-opa.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
Sheila Bernette, as an aged pickpocket, is less a stereotype than an escapee from some provincial British comedy of the early 1950s. But she steals necklaces and knickknacks with such finesse and gusto that she also steals the movie.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Jan Stuart
Fittingly, My Life in Ruins goes downhill after its title.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Scott Foundas
A strangely self-loathing affair that paints Vardalos's tour group as a uniformly ill-mannered, culturally illiterate bunch, while rendering Greece itself as a badly plumbed third-world hellhole run by lazy, Zorba-dancing louts.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Amy Binacolli
A cliché movie about love, orneriness and several maddening tourists.
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
Just to give you a taste of the movie's sophisticated idea of wit, it also makes fun of gay men.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
All ends happily for everyone in the movie, but for those in the audience, the experience is so hackneyed that they'll come out feeling like they're wearing shirts that say, "I went to the Acropolis, but all I got was this lousy T-shirt."
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Cliff Doerksen
Mike Reiss's witless, maudlin screenplay is like rancid leachate trickling from a Dumpster full of rotting sitcom scripts, Mary Kay sales manuals, and romance novels.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.3 (out of 10) based on 21 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Christina S. gave it a10:
Wonderful movie. Loved the back drop of Greece. I enjoyed it so much I watched it twice. Wanted a little bit more for the ending though.
Helen gave it a10:
I loved this movie which had me in hysterics. Richard Dreyfuss was by far the best. I'm Greek and was not at all insulted by this film.
Jay H. gave it a3:
This movie really stinks. Nia Vardalos isn’t the least bit convincing, and gives a very poor performance. Richard Dreyfuss is the only one who is decent in the cast. The writing is forced and not believable. It tries so hard to be cute, and it doesn't work. Dreadfully unfunny, the jokes are obvious.
Monica H. gave it a10:
I laughed a lot and I liked the Greek actor...he was the bomb!
Angel gave it a1:
Just plain bad. Don't bother.
RA M gave it a10:
How can one person say "no emotional attachment". This movie, altho a wonderful comedy, was also very sentimental. For total entertainment, see this movie. It's a must.
bj c gave it a10:
This is a must see. If you've ever been to Europe as part of tour you will relate to much of it. If you haven't then you still will find it so humorous. We laughed, we felt rather sad for the widower, we gushed in the romantic scense. This film evokes many different emotions. But the most important - it's just pure enjoyment.
