1) Nia Vardalos has great legs.

2) The ancient sites and historical buildings in Greece are magnificent.

Those would be the key features of My Life in Ruins, the much-anticipated romantic comedy that finally brings back to theatres the heroine of My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

You need not be Greek or Canadian to root for Miss Vardalos and to have high hopes for her new movie, but you should be prepared to have those hopes dashed.

It's unlikely that this one will please most of the people most of the time; having said that, we all witnessed the slow, grassroots response to My Big Fat Greek Wedding that made it one of the most successful indie movies of all time.

Ever.

In the world.

So ka-ching, people.

We saw My Life in Ruins as a Harlequin novel, only not as well written. Others may find it the nirvana of romantic comedy.

Nia Vardalos stars here as Georgia, an American professor of Greek history forced to work as a tour guide in Greece.

Georgia seems to always get the lousy bus and the most disruptive tourists -- people who aren't interested in the beauty or the historical importance of what they see.

True to form, her most recent collection of guidees include idiot Americans played by Harland Williams and Rachel Dratch, a wiseacre older widower (Richard Dreyfuss), a couple of bosomy Spanish man-eaters, an elderly British shoplifter, incomprehensible Australians and an ice-cold English couple with their sulky teenage daughter (Sophie Stuckey).

Georgia's bus has no air conditioning and is driven by a hirsute fellow named Poupi (Alexis Georgoulis) who speaks no English, or so Georgia thinks. Among other issues, Georgia fears she's lost her 'kefi' -- her zest, her love of life, her mojo, if you will -- but she only needs to talk out loud to herself about her current lack of sex for Poupi to show his linguistic abilities. Of course he speaks English.

Of course, there's a handsome guy under the beard and long hair. And a perfect Greek body under the schlumpy clothes.

The course of true love never did run smooth, and so poor Georgia, prior to arriving at a happy ending, must endure lousy hotel rooms, badly behaved tourists, a fellow tour guide determined to wreck her career and other, similar sitcom-ish situations. (The funniest bit in all that fluff involves a lascivious hotel desk clerk, played by Vardalos' real-life husband, Ian Gomez.)

At any rate, as Georgia learns to be happy she also learns to spread that happiness around, and her pack of badly behaved tourists quickly become friends and allies.

The big feature in My Life in Ruins is Vardalos herself, and if anything can save My Life in Ruins at the box office, it will be the combination of audience affection for the actress and audience affection for the landscape.

The iconic ruins of Greece are photographed in a way that will likely inspire a lot of people to get on a plane; Vardalos looks luminous in every shot and manages to stay graceful while dealing with material that's beneath her.

If looking at pretty pictures is all you require in a romantic comedy, My Life in Ruins could be for you.

(This film is rated PG)

More Movie Reviews