A lifeless romantic comedy.

Grade: C

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past

Indian Release Date: 28/08/09
CBFC Classification:  U/A
Running Length: 1 Hour 40 Minutes

Cast: Matthew McConaughay, Jennifer Garner, Michael Douglas, Breckin Meyer, Lacey Chabert, Robert Forster, Anne Archer, Noureen DeWulf, Emma Stone, Olga Maliouk   
Director: Mark Waters
Screenplay: Jon Lucas & Scott Moore
Cinematography: Daryn Okada
Music: Rolfe Kent

Hasn’t Matthew McConaughay already gotten tired of these romantic comedies he keeps on appearing in with alarming regularity? Even if his leading ladies or the plot or even his character changes his portrayal of that character remains the same throughout. I always feel I’m watching McConaughay on screen rather than the character he’s playing.   

His latest, ‘Ghosts of Girlfriends Past’ has an intriguing premise. It looks to impose the basic story structure of ‘A Christmas Carol’ on the most common modern day romance tales which get churned out like clockwork every year. So it takes the old, cold-hearted Scrooge from the original & replaces him with a shallow & selfish serial womanizer in the form of Conner Mead (Matthew McConaughay). Now Conner goes through life (& women) without giving a hoot about anyone & anything but himself, however all that is about to change. On the eve of his brother’s (Breckin Meyer) birthday after delivering a drunken discourse on the fallacies & inadequacies of love he is visited by four different ghosts who each give him a nugget of advice & some perspective about his life.

His long dead playboy uncle Wayne (Michael Douglas) happens to be the first ghost & even though it was him who taught a young Conner all the tricks of the trade, Wayne urges him to change tracks & find some real love else he’d be all alone in the future. He also informs him of the other three ghosts who’d visit him that night, one each from his past, present & future.

The ghost of the girlfriends past, Allison (Emma Stone) is the guide through perhaps the most interesting part of the story which involves how Conner Mead the innocent young boy became the self-absorbed womanizer he is today. It also lays the backbone for the most important relationship of Conner’s in the movie, which is with his childhood sweetheart Jenny (Jennifer Garner), the one girl whom he pines for all along. Once the story moves to the ghost of the girlfriends present it starts to fizzle out & rushes towards an uneven ending.

For a movie like this which has at its heart an extremely unlikable protagonist, his transformation is a very crucial factor in order for the story to work. The audience has to feel sympathetic towards him & his circumstances & an actor who can pull that off convincingly in spite of a weak plot is a must. Matthew McConaughay creates an unlikable enough character before but never manages to completely convince you to root for him during his transition phase. Jennifer Garner has a stronger character than most women have in these kind of movies have & if her relationship with Conner had been developed better then the story would have become more potent.  Unfortunately we are left to pine for them to be together simply because they are two pretty looking actors who are romantically paired together on screen.

Michael Douglas sounds more creepy & cheesy than classy & smooth though he seems to be enjoying the campiness of the character. Emma Stone has some spark & easily puts to shame the other two ghosts. The rest of the cast is simply there to collect a paycheck & they play it strictly by the numbers, though Anne Archer oozes class in an ‘almost’-seduction scene with McConaughay.

The movie is low on plot & characterization plus it’s predictable as hell, but the brisk pace does help cut out most of the boredom & it does have a few nice moments in between which lighten up the proceedings each time things seem to get dull. I can’t really recommend this movie for watching in the theatres, but maybe worth a watch some lazy afternoon on home video.

Final Verdict: A mediocre romantic comedy with a few moments of genuine spark, saddled with lifeless humor.

Grade: C

 

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