My big fat Greek sequel

Nia Vardalos, who became an overnight sensation with 2002's massive hit My Big Fat Greek Wedding, is in danger of becoming a flash in the pan of legendary proportions. My Life in Ruins takes Vardalos to Greece, where her character leads an unhappy, lonely, difficulty-ridden existence as a tour guide experiencing a midlife crisis.

As the story begins, Georgia Habchi (Vardalos) is about to begin yet another tedious tour. Unbeknown to her, a co-worker has made a deal to try to force Habchi to quit in exchange for a raise. With this added burden, Habchi meets her wards, a revolting, maggot-minded crew of American, British, nebulous East European and Spanish tourists. The group is a circus of stereotypes - some racist, some sexist, some recognizable as being based in truth (the excessive national pride exhibited by the Americans, for example).

Even the characters who reflect something resembling reality are mind-numbingly irritating and difficult to swallow, however. One of the worst aspects of spending a lot of time in a destination spot like Greece (or Prague, for that matter) is the steady stream of loud, fat, ignorant and demanding tourists who intrude on daily life. It is difficult to imagine paying good money to spend 95 minutes taking in the fictional variety.

Sitcom antics meet Under the Tuscan Sun as Habchi pursues love and the meaning of life amid the ancient ruins, the latter presented with surprisingly uninteresting footage collected under extraordinary circumstances: The film crew was reputedly the first American studio team ever allowed to shoot on location at the Acropolis, a fact that transforms a forgettable dud from tedious to depressing.

Even the worst movies tend to have redeeming elements, but none springs to mind here. The performances are negligent. Alexis Georgoulis plays a possible love interest who is only unmasked as handsome when shaved and stripped to the waist (as if the boy-crazy Habchi wouldn't have noticed the hunk in her midst). A bloated, wizened Richard Dreyfuss plays an unfunny amateur comedian, exhibiting a gimmick employed repeatedly in the film: attempts at humor by way of intentionally unfunny jokes. The problem with this approach is that bad jokes are simply that - bad. They don't magically become amusing because some character points out their ineffectiveness.

When Habchi gets no response from yet another intentionally unfunny joke, she whines, "That was supposed to be a joke." In response, a cartoon of a wealthy snob played by Caroline Goodall chimes in with, "You're not funny." While being a kind of wormhole into layers within layers of anti-humor, the moment is at least one of the few where art imitates life in an unrelentingly one-dimensional and superficial film.

One is tempted to feel pity for Vardalos, who looks as artificially wan and airbrushed as her husband (Ian Gomez, who has a small part in the film) appears obese and revolting. But pity would be wasted on the actress, who launched to stardom on a fluke and has seemingly devoted her energies since to appearing on magazine covers and cooking up schemes to capitalize on the commercial success of what appears to have been her one day in the sun (such as the ill-fated television series My Big Fat Greek Life).

The poverty of the script may be the fault of credited screenwriter Mike Reiss. But some of the blame must rest with Vardalos, who penned a rewrite for this film as well as the script for My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

That film was the highest-grossing romantic comedy in movie history, so it's easy to understand why producers Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson would consent to an ill-conceived sequel. In her first big movie role, Vardalos was less thin and more endearing. In My Life in Ruins she is, both as an actress and a writer, a shadow of her former self.

James Walling can be reached at
jwalling@praguepost.com