My Life in Ruins
2009 · Directed by Donald Petrie
Original language: English
- comedy
- romance
The story
A Greek tour guide named Georgia attempts to recapture her kefi (Greek for mojo) by guiding a ragtag group of tourists around Greece and showing them the beauty of her native land. Along the way, she manages to open their eyes to the wonders of an exotic foreign land while beginning to see the world through a new set of eyes in the process.
What it’s like
Bright Mediterranean sun on whitewashed walls, sea glitter, and the bleached gold of ancient stone make up most of the frame, with bus windows, taverna terraces and sunlit ruins providing a steady sense of travel. Shot in a clean, warm studio-comedy style with broad, sunny palettes, it moves at a brisk, chatty clip, with loose comic set-pieces and a light, bouncing score that feels like holiday sunshine. The tone is cheerful and easygoing, a comedy about getting unstuck: a jaded guide and a group of mismatched tourists slowly loosening up, with romance drifting in at the edges. The intensity is very low: there is no real violence, and the mild crudeness is played for laughs, with a few hospital and bodily-humour gags. It suits a lazy weekend afternoon, a comfort watch, or something on while planning a holiday, and it is for people who want warm, undemanding Greek sunshine and gentle laughs.
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