Driving Aphrodite (Nia Vardalos)

(Amazon UK link)

It’s nearly nine years since we watched the light romantic comedy’ Driving Aphrodite’. I didn’t remember much about it, although it’s a somewhat predictable story. I did recall that there were some cultural references and jokes that we could appreciate after living in a Greek culture for many years.

Nia Vardalos stars as Georgia, a young Greek American woman who is a historian, specialising in Ancient Greece. She has applied for jobs lecturing in American universities, but so far has been unsuccessful. So she’s living in Greece for a while, to work as a tour guide. She finds it quite stressful, as she’s usually given a group with the difficult passengers, the old bus and fairly grim accommodation.

The bulk of the film is about her tour, which she expects to be her last. Her driver Poupi (Alexis Georgoulis) does not appear to speak any English, and her tour group consists of a diverse bunch of people. They include an elderly woman who steals from market stalls, some young women who have recently ended relationships and insist they have given up men; an uptight couple with a sulky teenage daughter; and a late middle-aged man, Irv (Richard Dreyfuss) who tells bad jokes…

Georgia believes that people come to Greece to learn about the culture, and the ancient monuments. So her tours are primarily educational. Her colleague Nico (Alistair McGowan) always gets nicer groups of people and a more modern bus and is popular with the tourists as he takes them for ice creams, shopping tours and to the beach. He gets good reviews while Georgia doesn’t, so she decides that this is going to be her last tour as she doesn’t want to compromise her principles.

However as she gets to know her group, she realises that they’re mostly likeable people with their own problems and griefs. She is persuaded, mainly by Irv, that she needs to lighten up a bit. She’s quite uptight and very keen to stick with her schedule - this contrasts well with Nico’s relaxed, materialistic outlook.

The pace is good, with plenty of low-key humour and a developing romance, even if Georgia gets the wrong idea for a while. There are some sad stories too, and a dramatic climax to the book just as she is beginning to realise that she should be more Greek in her outlook and stop worrying about time and appearances.

It’s not the greatest film, but Richard Dreyfuss as Irv - once I managed to stop thinking of him as Mr Holland - is superb, and Alexis Georgoulis as Poupi does a believable and smooth metamorphosis. Other characters are caricatured but that doesn’t matter at all. Digs are made at several cultures, including Australians whose speech is impossible to understand, and Canadians who really, really don’t want to be thought of as American.

We smiled in a few places, and it made a good film to watch when we were both tired and in need of relaxation.

The rating is 12 in the UK (PG-13 in the US) which seems about right. There’s nothing explicit, but plenty of innuendoes as well as an implied scene; and a great deal of discussion of sex (or the lack of it). No major bad language, and only minor violence, mostly intended humorously.

Recommended to anyone who likes this kind of lightweight romantic comedy with a Greek cultural twist.

Review copyright 2020 Sue's DVD Reviews