False advertising! There are four main reasons I assumed I would love this movie:
1) I’m a fan of the “chick flick.” This just wasn’t a very good chick flick. There weren’t enough laughs, cute moments that you wish your boyfriend would replicate, or the gooey moments where my heart usually melts.
2) Jennifer Garner. I’m not a huge fan of her in general, but I figured she would be good in this movie for her looks alone, but her looks didn’t save the movie this time. I’d rather re-watch 13 Going on 30.
3) Matthew McConaughey. While I still love him for being so darn attractive (my cousin and her friends call him “Matthew McCona-hottie), he really needs to stop playing the exact same character. While leading men tend to play similar characters, his are almost exactly the same.
4) The title.
I thought Ghosts of Girlfriends Past was going to be a cute Christmas movie, but it wasn’t. It was a movie released to the theaters in May and uses one of the classic Christmas tales, but with a twist. In fact, May or not, the film takes place during the holiday season in snowy Newport, Rhode Island. There are a few mentions of the big day, but the film focuses more on a different big day—a wedding. Who gets married on Christmas? I love weddings, don’t get me wrong. I may even love weddings more than I love Christmas, but still…don’t mess with Christmas. Instead of Ebenezer Scrooge’s visits by three ghosts of Christmas, three women visit Conner Mead (Matthew McConaughey) to educate him on the error of his ways with his many ex-girlfriends.
More on McConaughey: How many times have we seen him play this role? Like I said, it’s fine to be the guy who has a great face coupled with an endearing Southern accent so you decide to only play the leading man in romantic comedies, but stop playing the same character. He always plays the man who loves women so much that he can’t seem to make it work with any one woman (i.e. Fool’s Gold, Failure to Launch, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, The Wedding Planner, even Dazed and Confused).
Don’t misunderstand me—the guy did make a few outliers to the womanizing romantic hero model. He did A Time to Kill and We Are Marshall, for instance. But these aren’t enough to have made me think any different while watching Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. Conner Mead is a famous photographer whose portfolio consists mainly of half-naked women. He dates multiple women at one time and even breaks up with three at once via conference call. Conner attends his brother’s wedding at the cabin of their deceased Uncle Wayne (Michael Douglas), whose ghost appears and tells him that he’ll meet three other phantasms. Uncle Wayne was a womanizer who died without a spouse or children because of his “tail-chasing” days. He urges Conner to change, but only when he sees how he hurt a woman he truly cared about many years prior, does he begin to realize the message of these ghosts.
Michael Douglas is awesome as Uncle Wayne. His cool and calm, throaty voice glides through his lines as usual. Props to the costume designer for Wayne’s wardrobe—it’s spot on. Aside from this, the movie left much to be desired. I know that Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol was doomed to be remade time and time again the moment he put pen to paper, but it really should’ve ended with the Disney version. And to leave out Christmas? Why even bother? We should leave Matthew McCona-hottie to his own devices. If he wants to replay the same character, fine. But don’t destroy a classic on your path to continual self-rediscovery.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
In addition to the Blu-ray disc, you will be provided with a digital copy. Aside from that, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past includes deleted scenes and a few featurettes. One of the featurettes was somewhat interesting and divulged how they went about creating Conner’s past. Another dissects the psyche behind the womanizing Uncle Wayne and the follower, Conner Mead. While still another is one of your usual cast interviews, in which you can hear Matthew’s cast mates gush about how charming he is. In some sense, I mean that to be sarcastic, but in another sense I completely agree with them so...lucky them!
"Ghosts of Girlfriends Past" is on sale September 22, 2009 and is rated PG13. Comedy, Fantasy, Romance. Directed by Mark Waters. Written by Jon Lucas, Scott Moore. Starring Jennifer Garner, Matthew McConaughey, Michael Douglas.
