Morley Walker pens an apologetic ode to Winnipeg-raised actress Nia Vardalos in today’s Freep.
Nia’s latest movie, My Life In Ruins, opened in 9th spot this weekend, earning just $3.2 million. Morley offers a number of excuses (many from Vardalos herself) why the movie didn’t open strong, including the small number of screens it’s playing on, the small size of the film’s distributor, the small size of the marketing budget, and that “movies that open strongly are almost always special-effects-driven action films and vulgar comedies.”
I’ve got a better explanation. Maybe, the movie just plain sucks.
According to Rotten Tomatoes, it’s only getting 13% positive reviews. Compare that to the weekend’s box office winner, “male gross-out comedy” The Hangover, which is getting 77%, or to Nia’s own breakout hit, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, which got 76% thumbs up back in 2002.
Look, I think it’s great that Vardalos had success with Greek Wedding. But she hasn’t done anything of note in the past seven years, is hardly a household name outside of Winnipeg, and (based on the reviews) she should be happy this turkey didn’t just go straight to DVD.
As noted by Morley’s Freep colleague Bart Kives in a recent column, “In small communities, there is a tendency to praise all hometown creations in fear of upsetting artistic applecarts.” Well, pardon my boot to the cart, but we shouldn’t be making excuses for Nia’s poor film selection just because she’s local.
I also find it a bit funny that the same factors Vardalos and Walker are complaining about today are what helped make Greek Wedding such a great success story. It was a small movie with an unknown star, a tiny distributor and a micro-sized marketing budget. It opened in even less theatres than My Life in Ruins; about half as many. Yet despite those challenges — or maybe because of them — it became the feel-good hit of 2002.
In a blog entry at the Huffington Post, Vardalos bemoans the current lack of good female-led movies, and asks “So, women: can we speak up with our wallets?”
Maybe they already are Nia.
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Just to blow a few more holes on Morley’s theory, I’ll point out that the ’small’ distributor of My Life In Ruins is Fox Searchlight, which is responsible for other tiny little films like Juno, Slumdog Millionaire and Sideways. Clearly they know how to sell a movie if they’ve got something decent to work with.
And despite the alleged non-existent marketing budget for this film, I’ve seen at least a dozen commercials for it already. Then again, maybe they’re hitting Winnipeg a little harder.
Finally, as for the public’s appetite for “special-effects-driven action films and vulgar comedies”, a quick look at the last 10 weekend box office champs shows that only four of them (The Hangover, Star Trek, Wolverine, Fast and Furious) would meet that description. Four were kid/family-friendly (Hannah Montana, 17 Again, Night At The Museum II, Up), while two were dramas (Obsessed, Angels & Demons).
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Walker’s column advises readers to “Google her (Vardalos) Huffington Post blog from Monday evening.” That works fine in print, but why can’t the online version of the story simply link to the Huff Post? This kind of thing drives me nuts, and both local papers are gulity of it. If you’re talking about a website, link to the damn thing online.
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UPDATE: Just came across these gems in Roger Ebert’s review of the film:
The central question posed by “My Life in Ruins” is, what happened to the Nia Vardalos who wrote and starred in “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”? She was lovable, earthy, sassy, plumper, more of a mess, and the movie grossed more than $300 million. Here she’s thinner, blonder, better dressed, looks younger and knows it. She’s like the winner of a beauty makeover at a Hollywood studio. She has that don’t touch my makeup! look. And if anyone in Hollywood has whiter, straighter, more gleaming teeth, we’ll never know it, because like most people, they’ll usually keep their lips closed.
To speculate on people’s motives is risky and can be unfair. Let me gently suggest that when Nia Vardalos made “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” she was an unlikely, saucy movie star who didn’t take herself seriously. She was also an incomparably better screenwriter than Mike Reiss, the autopilot sitcom veteran who cobbled together this lousy script.
Now she is rich, famous and perhaps taking herself seriously after being worked over for one too many magazine covers.
Filed under: winnipeg blog | Tagged: morley walker, nia vardalos, Winnipeg Free Press
Why do you hate Winnipeg so much?
Oh Froggie. Really, I mean really, her Life in Ruins? Awww, c’mon, we got swine flu, Raitt, Katz, and even (still) radargate. Oh Froggie, I have come to expect better of you; after all, nobody gives a hot steaming crap about the gate receipts for this movie…. do they?
I do…I mean, she was such a darling of the local media, it’s interesting to see any follow-ups to their successes…listen, I like Ms. Vardalos, but movie-making sounds like a tough, tough business, and some can only catch lightning in a bottle only once…it’s much better when the likes of Walker are promoting the smaller artists and performers in Winnipeg who are aspiring to the heights Ms. Vardalos once reached…
Well again, this harkens to this city’s penchant to cling to any vestige of “local makes impact elsewhere” storyline. Last Thursday, Uptown released its Best of Winnipeg 2009 poll, and again Anna Paquin was voted as our favorite actress, despite the fact her family moved out of the city when she was only 3 years old to New Zealand. Whether it’s Nia Vardalos, the Guess Who/BTO, Kenny Shields, Monty Hall, David Steinberg or Neil Young who only lived here for a short period of his life, Winnipeg’s media elite always has the city live vicariously through those who haven’t lived here in years. Nevermind the fact that (save for Steinberg and Young) no one really gives a second thought to outside of Manitoba.
@Fat Arse – I don’t really care much about the movie either. Saw a few commercials and thought “Hmm, Nia Vardalos in a Greek-themed movie. How original.”
This is really about the shameless boosterism that’s often on display by local media whenever someone achieves some level of success outside of this town. So this movie bombs. It couldn’t possibly be that it’s just a crappy movie, right? No, it’s a conspiracy against middle-aged female movie goers of course.
@Dave – Paquin should have her questionable Manitoba credentials revoked completely after starring in the movie “Blue State,” which was not only a horrific pile of crap, but also made us all look like morons. Truly one of the worst movies ever made.
@Frog Let’s not forget that Paquin was the Cindy Klassen of the late 90s. After she was a smash hit in Hollywood (Just like Cindy was the greatest Olympian EVER) MTS signed her up for a slew of commercials. Thanks god there were no Bison.
http://djuna.cine21.com/anna/27.html
And actually, if you read to the bottom of the press release I posted, things we’re “World Class” in Winnipeg in 1997 too!
Me-ow, Froggie. Why spill so much cyber-ink over this? I invoke the Thumper (or rather, his mom’s) principal: If you can’t anything nice…
seriously, so what if Moanin’ Morley tries to be an apologist or booster for an ex-Pegger? I lost all respect for him a decade ago when he was such a fan-boy of Bram Tovey that he blindly echoed the ex-maestro’s rants & blaming everyone else but himself for the Symphony’s losing money hand over fist.
haven’t seen the new one, & probably never will (until it’s on TV, & then will only half watch it while reading etc, like I did the Wedding), but the all the catty remarks aside, the main difference b/w the two in making or breaking them is probably that Tom Hanks’ wife, Rita Wilson, was enamored with it, & they played Oprah & championed the first film & & got it on the public’s radar in a big way. Whereas this time she’s riding on her own coattails.
I support the Frog on this. It’s a fair story for Frog. It is a typical display of how Winnipeg keeps the worst of its small-town feel because it promotes the worst of its small-town attitude.
Someone should develop a little paper & chemical strip you can use to instantly determine whether someone is really a Winnipegger or not.
Winnipeggers will make their biggest strides forward when they stop caring so much what others think. I moved here from Nova Scotia almost 15 years ago (after 2 years in Edmonton) and have never seen a city with such a needlessly fragile ego.
While you do have to dig a little deeper maybe, there is lots of good stuff here. Instead of worrying of how Winnipeg stacks up to the rest of the world and worrying about “world-class” vanity projects (certain museums, I’m looking in your direction) we need to own what makes Winnipeg unique.
When I have friends come in from out of town, they all like the Exchange, St. Boniface’s French-ness, and the Forks. If they are here for awhile, they also get a chance to see Winnipeg’s artsy side and always go away impressed. This is what Winnipeg needs to work on promoting and less of the generic spirited energy nonsense.
I can’t stand Vardalos. She’s a sexist bigot, and her movies only prove to encourage that.
Remember ladies: only fall in love in your own culture, only talk about your own culture, and only marry men you can demean and treat like meat (I mean, Poupi? Suddenly falling in love when he shaves his beard? Come on). If Vardalos’s gender was reversed, this movie would never have been made.
She needs to go sit on her millions she made from the Oprah-fed undeserved fandom of her first movie, and shut up.
We shouldn’t have to rely on has-been or should-have-never-been celebrities to find pride in our home. I know I don’t.
When it comes to movies and TV shows, I go by the rule of thumb that, on average, one-sixth of all new titles coming out of the studios/networks will be a flop, two-thirds will have a decent but unremarkable run, and only one-sixth will stand out in any way. (It’s loosely based on what’s known in statistics as a “standard deviation”.)
It’s probably fair to say that Vardalos’ Big Fat Greek Wedding was among the luckiest one-in-six when it came out. But it might have raised unrealistic expectations that her next venture would do just as well when the odds of it happening were not all that great.
Why do people dump on Policy Frog for his choice of topics? It’s his blog and he can damn well discuss anything he chooses. Agreeing or disagreeing with his view of the topic is fair game (presumably he wouldn’t enable comments if he didn’t want some discussion) but dissing him for the choice of topic (which I’ve seen in other threads besides this one) seems lame and pointless to me. Just my two cents.
Too harsh, Jamie, way too harsh…Big Greek Wedding was a well-written script that Vardalos mined her own family ties for, that’s why the Greek influence is so strong, and actually reflects many immigrant concerns, like fitting in, finding people with like backgrounds, etc. It was maybe a little narrow-focused, but please, it’s a light romantic comedy, not a treatise on whatever ails the world. Sheesh. Her biggest problem is trying to write anything different, she does seems to be losing her touch….
Cheeky actually makes the best comment, the one that acknowledges the Hank’s connection, his wife, Rita, has Greek heritage…..
And I like the change of topics, I’ve had enough of the mayor-bashing, council speculating, let’s move everybody downtown discussions that dominate many a Winnipeg blog….PF is also about the media, and Morley Walker, as Winnipeg’s self-appointed guardian of he deems as culture, is a good target….
OK, so My Life In Ruins is probably less enjoyable than a microwaved wedge of week-old spanakopita. But I must defend Morley, who works his butt off on a bad day.
Feel free to disagree with his opinions, but local arts organizations are lucky to have someone so committed to covering them and keeping them honest.
Dedicated arts reporters and columnists are an endangered species in Canada. Much of the work Morley does on a day-to-day basis goes unnoticed.
The Graffiti Gallery story is an excellent recent example.
Bart
@ Bart: ok, maybe his behind-the-scenes work is to be commended (who knew?), but it’s the snarky tone in his published work, such as how he takes potshots at aged rockers (insulting most of the readers, in the process), that I object to; it seems to have set the tone & infected many of the other writers, yourself included, which nearly ended your career.
But re: Nia’s being a one-trick pony: ‘guess no one saw Connie and Carla, which featured another ‘ugly duckling’ from a wedding-themed sleeper hit (i.e., Muriel’s Wedding)… or it was so forgettable, that it failed to register enuff to be recalled.
@Bart I think we can agree that Morley does fantastic work promoting the local arts scene. But what good is it for us collectively if the media just acts more as an Alumni newsletter letting us know the goings on of Winnipeggers who really haven’t done much special since they’ve left? I know times are tough for the paper, but what the media in this city really needs is a better beat on showcasing emerging talent so they have a better platform to establish a higher profile. I think the Freep does a pretty good job of that with the Tab, but if Nia Vardalos does so much as fart, it gets way more Ink and better positioning than if a promising local theatre group were to put on a show at the Gas Station.
As alluded to earlier Winnipeggers polled in Uptown (a weekly that is assumed has an educated cultured readership) said that Anna Paquin is their favorite local actress. That is a problem.
@ Dave Shorr: Nia farted? When? Do you know where she was when it happened? Who was with her? How did they react? How long have you been sitting on this story?
I always think of Morley Walker as the cautionary tale for anybody who fancies themself a Woody Allen. Not all nerdy arts fans get NYC & Mia Farrow (no insult intended to Mrs. Morley Walker). Be wary kids! And at least Morley isn’t David Gilmour. I think we should all remember and be thankful for that!
In fairness I think the Free Press actually has a very solid compliment of arts & culture reporters. Local writers dedicated to classical music, dance, live theatre, film, pop/rock etc. Most papers throw sports a pile of money, nominal money at local news and then rely on the wire to fill the pages. Just want to give credit where I think credit might actually be due.
@Clay I agree with that point about their coverage. It’s pretty good I’d say. I just don’t know how much good it is to give Nia’s new movie D1 placement and then defending it after it got panned when it was known pre-release and after that it was going to be a stinker of a movie. It’s not often that local artists (be it music, theatre, fine arts etc) get teased on the front page of the Freep unless they’ve struck gold somewhere else. I guess what I should have said is that the Freep does good work in covering these local artists, but these artists deserve better real estate in the paper. Let’s not forget that MBFGW was birthed in Toronto, not Winnipeg.
I do agree that Morley does do his best to spotlight local talent….no argument there.
@Bryce: ” have never seen a city with such a needlessly fragile ego.”
I believe that Vancouver is well ahead of Winnipeg in “needlessly fragile ego” race. After moving from YWG to YVR a mere 17 years ago, I have never seen a city’s people trash other cities so relentlessly and with such fervour.
Sure,YVR has the mountains and the ocean which, when the weather is nice, are great but YVR has more junkies/beggars /homeless in the downtown/tourist area than any other city (in the world) that I have had the luck to visit and then,of course, there is the infamous “Vancouver Skids/JunkieTown/Canada’s Poorest Postal Code/Overdose Neighbourhood” where even all the rain cannot get rid of the stench of pi$$ and $hit that emanates year round. The really sad part of my description of YVR is that
all that crap makes for (some) great photo-ops along with, of course, the numerous (mostly drug-related) homicides and shootings
And, FWIW, i haven’t seen “My Life In Ruins” and, probably, won’t see it but I
did see MBFGW and really did enjoy it
Cheers from Beautiful BC to Friendly Manitoba ;D