Driving Aphrodite (12A) **

Oct 2 2009 By Damon Smith

RETITLED from its US name of My Life In Ruins, this film marks the return of Nia Vardalos.

Who she? Well, Nia starred in the huge box office smash My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and was also nominated for a Best Original Screenplay Oscar in 2003.

Directed by Donald Petrie (Grumpy Old Men / Miss Congeniality), this is a bumbling comedy about an unhappily single Greek-American tour guide who is oblivious to Mr Right sitting at the front of her bus in Greece.

So she hands in her notice and grits her teeth for her final tour with driver Poupi Kakas (Georgoulis), who somehow manages to keep the vehicle on the Greek roads when he isn’t making eyes at Georgia. Richard Dreyfuss plays brash American traveller Irv who gives the tour guide some advice about how to spice up their trip.

“History has got a lot of dirty stories. Sex sells,” he tells her. But the first half hour is so dull, by the time the script by Mike Reiss (The Simpsons / The Gary Shadling Show) picks up a gear in the second half you’ll be hoping to go off the edge of a cliff despite the cast including Evesham-born Alistair McGowan, Ian Ogilvy (Return of the Saint) and Dorian Gray star Caroline Goodall.