![]() That is a strength and a weakness - as it is, people tend to buy tickets to his movies not because they’re terribly intrigued by the plot but because they want to see Matthew McConaughey. This is also where it gets all fuzzy between McConaughey and Connor, when that thin line between actor and character nearly disappears. Connor may not see where all this is going, but we definitely do.ĭirector Mark Waters, whose nice touch made “Mean Girls” and “Freaky Friday” engaging, has his work cut out for him here, though everything gets better when the story from screenwriters Jon Lucas and Scott Moore moves into the meaty center and Connor begins to see who he really is, what he might lose and how he must change. A rival, and then the possibility of redemption when the ghosts of girlfriends present and future join the party. While he’s busy with that, including figuring out whether he still cares for Jenny, a clever, handsome and available physician named Brad (Daniel Sunjata from “Rescue Me”) enters stage right. ![]() The movie takes its time working through all of Connor’s arrested development issues. McConaughey and Garner are a lot of playful fun together, good counterweights of sense and nonsense as would-be loves, and the temperature rises every time they’re on screen together. Sparks fly, and they’re not just the bad kind. ![]() She is serious about this wedding, and he is seriously not. And whoever put McConaughey in that really bad shoulder-length hair piece (or extensions, whatever) for his trip down memory lane should be banished from blow-dry land forever.īack in the real world, Connor is having to deal with his childhood sweetheart Jenny - a smart and sassy Jennifer Garner - who’s running point as the maid of honor. A little nuance would have gone a long way. This is where the movie hits a low with its endless tales of his mindless seduction of, let’s just call them the disposable femmes. Soon Connor is on a travesty tour of all the women he has wronged - they are legion - conducted primarily by the tag team of Connor’s late Lothario/mentor, Uncle Wayne (Michael Douglas), and the first girl he slept with, Allison Vandermeersh (Emma Stone). (Why is it that friends and relatives, dead or alive, choose weddings to settle old scores?) In “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past,” the occasion of his brother Paul’s (Breckin Meyer) wedding kicks things off as the dearly departed return to force Connor to question his life in the fast lane. For McConaughey - and this is as clear as the digital wide-screen picture in front of you - it’s the hard truth that his young hunk days are ending. For Connor, it’s the painful realization that being an unrepentant playboy might not be the best life plan. Did I mention there are no angels here?īut lest you dismiss “Ghosts” as just another frothy sexual romp for the sun-kissed, ab-sculpted star, there is an actual cautionary tale here. A webcam breakup with three girls at once is possibly the worst of it. So essentially it is McConaughey once again playing to type - this time as high-end fashion photographer Connor Mead, happily breezing through more women than you’d find in the Manhattan phone book. They come back to the venue, where Connor opens up to Jenny about how he never stopped loving her.“Ghosts of Girlfriends Past” is an amusingly sentimental whiff of a romantic comedy, a modern-day morality tale that is a little “It’s Not Such a Wonderful Life” and a lot “A Very Un-Christmas Carol.” Instead of Jimmy Stewart’s George Bailey despairing over a life lived in service to the greater good, we have Matthew McConaughey as a man relishing a life lived in service to the greater bad. Connor becomes the savior and salvages the wedding by giving a convincing talk to the bride. At this point, the bride learns about a secret that Connor lets out about his brother which convinces her to call off the wedding. In his future, he sees that Jenny is with someone else and he dies alone with no one loving him. ![]() In his present, his assistant Melanie shows him his shallow ways, giving him a peak into what his women say about him. Since then, he has never committed to any girl and dates casually. ![]() In his past, we learn that Connor was badly scarred by a girl named Jenny (who is also at the rehearsal). Wayne wants to open Connor's eyes to his womanizing ways and tells him that three women from his past, present, and future will show him these different aspects of his life. While there, Connor is visited by his uncle's ghost, Wayne, who taught him everything he knows in seducing women. He tries to sabotage the wedding and tries to play mind games with both the bride and groom. He goes to his brother's wedding rehearsal and tries to convince him to back out. Connor is a womanizer and makes no apologies about it. ![]()
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