Ghosts Of Girlfriends Past

I was rather disappointed when I missed this when it was released in the cinema and since then I've been looking forward to seeing it, I was pleased when it finally arrived through our letterbox (care of the lovely lovefilm).

The structure of this film is easily and instantly recognisable as a very similar scenario to Charles Dickens famous 'A Christmas Carol'. Connor Mead (Matthew Mconaughey), a hugely popular and famous celebrity photographer is leading man and the alternative scrooge. Connor a committed bachelor and rampant womaniser who dates and breaks up with women on nothing more than a mere whim, while never getting involved with any one of them for more than his very short attention span, is soon to learn the lesson of his life. At Connor's brothers wedding he makes a bit of an unwelcome show and somehow he is in the middle of one disaster after another that is threatening to ruin his brother's wedding. That night he is visited by the ghost of girlfriends past in the form of an 80's teenager girl a literal blast from his past, then the ghost of girlfriends present and finally the ghost of girlfriends future. Together all the ghosts take him on a journey to have a hard look at his life and whether he has turned out to be the person he truly wants to be.

One of the reasons I was so eager to see this film as it has a pretty good cast for a romantic comedy including the very talented Matthew McConaughey and Jennifer Garner, but I don't think they give their best performances. I was also surprised to see Michael Douglas starring as Connor's womanising uncle, a role that he played perfectly with enough humour to make the character the most memorable of the whole film.

The film is a bit too predictable, which is a bit inevitable because it uses the structure of a Christmas carol, a story that I have been brought up with. Connor Mead doesn't believe that love exists and this is a nice romantic comedy that tries to show him the error of his ways. However, during the film it never really feels that Connor really learns his lesson, it all comes a bit too easy, while the morale of the Christmas carol is much more poignant than the lessons that this film has to offer the characters.

The running time is 1 hour 40 minutes, which is probably on the long side. There were a couple of occasions where I thought that the film dragged on a fraction too long. This is a pretty average film and as such deserves a pretty average three out of five stars. It does make for a nice afternoons entertainment, however, I don't think this is a film that I would watch more than once.

I wouldn't really recommend going out of your way to watch this, if it's on and you are in the mood then by all means sit back and enjoy. After looking forward to finally seeing this film I was a bit disappointed, it didn't really live up and deliver a film that was memorable. I sat through the whole thing but my husband went off to do the housework.

Connor Mead (Matthew McConaughey) is living every man's dream. He has made a career out of photographing scantily clad women. But that's nothing compared to the string of women he's left behind him. No woman seems to be able to resist his charm, but once he's slept with them, he moves on. Heck, he is able to break up with three women at once on a conference chat while still getting the one in his room to sleep with him.

All that changes the weekend of his brother Paul's (Breckin Meyer) wedding. Connor is the best man, so he returns to his uncle Wayne's estate where he is reunited with his first crush Jenny (Jennifer Garner). But as he is putting his moves on everyone around him, he starts seeing ghosts. First, it's Uncle Wayne (Michael Douglas), who warns him about three more to come. Will Connor learn anything from these visits?

Quite obviously, this is the romantic comedy version of A Christmas Carol, a personal favorite of mine. Between that, Jennifer Garner, and the fun previews, I thought this might actually be fun. And it had a few fun moments. I laughed a few times. And I appreciated how the story was advanced with Connor interacting with the real people at the wedding in between the ghostly visits.

The acting, on the other hand, could have been better. Even Jennifer Garner wasn't up to her normal standards. The only one I really liked was Michael Douglas. The ghostly special effects, on the other hand, were great.

My problem with this movie lies squarely on the shoulders of the writers. It was written by two guys. Instead of being a romantic comedy where Connor learns an important lesson, this is really a guy's fantasy flick. Heck, we get a long flashback scene were Uncle Wayne is teaching a teenaged Connor how to score with women. It adds nothing to the story or the characters. It is only there because the authors found it fun.

Then there's the bride to be. Yes, they were playing the overstressed bride for laughs, but she was such a despised characters, I was actually agreeing with Connor that his brother shouldn't marry the woman.

All this really shows itself in the climax. Yes, we get the expected moral (the ending is hardly a surprise), but it happens so fast, I don't believe that Connor has actually learned anything.

My love of A Christmas Carol makes me look on this film more favorably then I should. Don't be fooled by the previews, this is not a romantic comedy. It is nothing but a male fantasy that pretends to be something else. It isn't worth your time or money.

Charles Dickens' novel, `A Christmas Carol' is one of those literary works that has not only been adapted for screen several times, but because is such a powerful story about redemption that resonates with people, it has also been updated and given contemporary twists in productions such as: Blackadder's Christmas Carol, Scrooged and The Muppet's Christmas Carol, to name a few.

Ghosts of Girlfriend's Past adds itself to the long line of remakes or reimagining's of this classic tale, but rather than having the lead character learn the error of his ways about his cruelty and miserly conduct, we have a womaniser learning how to respect women through the aid of his deceased playboy uncle and `ghost girlfriends'. Besides the main concept of three ghosts visiting someone to change their ways, the film doesn't share many similarities with its source material, mainly due to the fact it is a romantic comedy.

Matthew McConaughey plays Connor Meade (not Ebenezer Scrooge!) who has been a notorious flirt and playboy since his early teens, with such misogynist behaviour as breaking up with three girls at once, on a conference call. Despite his ungentlemen-like behaviour, he still has much luck with the ladies and finds himself in many romantic trysts. He goes to his brother's wedding rehearsal dinner and after insulting many of the guests, he finds himself visited by the ghost of his uncle (Michael Douglas) who was the inspiration behind his womanising ways. His uncle explains that if he continues down thus path that he will die alone and that three ghosts will visit him and help him change his ways.

I'd never watched a Matthew McConaughey film before but I had heard negative opinions of his `acting skills'. Here he seemed entertaining enough, although he had a strange accent (almost Texan in places), which may have been his natural accent or a bizarre acting decision. Jennifer Garner was great as his female lead, managing to hold her own against him during his "chauvinist phase". I found the rest of the cast to be a bit bland, or in the case of Lacey Chabert who played the hysteric bride-to-be, slight annoying. Michael Douglas was a good choice for the cameo role as the deceased playboy uncle, since he has played roles of that type before in his earlier movies and became a little typecast as a man who lives life in excess.

The plot was predictable, considering it was using a well-worn template of a classic novel, but there was some entertaining moments, mostly pertaining to the flashbacks which the ghost of girlfriends past, played perfectly by a brace-wearing Emma Stone (my Hollywood crush) complete with frizzy hair. This was by far the funniest section of the film, mostly due to Emma's performance. She was quite over-the-top as the enthusiastic teenage first girlfriend and her banter with the grown-up Connor Mead was amusing.

Overall, this was a good film although it did suffer slightly due to the well-worn trail it was following. It is a double-edge sword doing a modern-day update for a classic tale, since you are inhibited by the structure of the previous tale, but at the same time you need to strike some originality in your own story to keep it relevant. While I think Ghosts of Girlfriends Past managed to strike a good balance between staying true to the themes behind `A Christmas Carol' and having its own message, I could see the strings behind the `puppets' sometimes and this would distract me from the actual storyline.