My Life in Ruins
Fox Searchlight Pictures | Release Date: June 5, 2009 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
34
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 25 Critic Reviews
Positive:
2
Mixed:
13
Negative:
10
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
63
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
A pleasant if unremarkable romantic comedy that plays out like a sitcom with great scenery. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie 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
58
Entertainment WeeklyOwen 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
50
The Hollywood ReporterDoris Toumarkine
Ruins is sometimes as sunny as its locations but as familiar and predictable as a Greek diner. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeWesley 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
50
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
My Life in Ruins will neither ruin nor change nor significantly impact your life. Read full review
50
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
50
ReelViewsJames 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
50
Los Angeles TimesGlenn 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
50
The New York TimesStephen 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
50
TV Guide MagazineJason 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
42
The A.V. ClubNathan 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
42
Christian Science MonitorPeter 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
40
VarietyLael Loewenstein
Feels like warmed-over souvlaki. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsElizabeth 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
38
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger 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
38
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Cloying and dated movie. Read full review
38
Baltimore SunMichael 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
38
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike Scott
For movie-goers who like a little cleverness with their comedy, however, one word: N-opa. Read full review
30
Village VoiceScott 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
30
Washington PostJan Stuart
Fittingly, My Life in Ruins goes downhill after its title. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleAmy Binacolli
A cliché movie about love, orneriness and several maddening tourists. Read full review
25
New York PostLou 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
11
Austin ChronicleMarjorie 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
0
Chicago ReaderCliff 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
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