Ghosts of Girlfriends Past

This movie has a great story line, less than 6/10 seems kind of unfair. Michael Douglas did an amazing job as Uncle Wayne, and is constantly cited by my friend for his wits. I think most of Jennifer Garner's movies are underrated actually. Fools Gold with Mathew and Daredevil with Jennifer Garner are also pretty underrated also.

The successful fashion photographer Connor Mead (Matthew McConaughey) is a womanizer without feelings that has casual sex with every possible woman and worships his deceased wolf Uncle Wayne (Michael Douglas). The bachelor Connor travels to Massachusetts to be the best man of his younger brother Paul (Breckin Meyer) on the night before the wedding for the rehearsal. However, he tries to convince Paul to call off the wedding with Sandra (Lacey Chabert). The maid of honor Jenny Perotti (Jennifer Garner) was Connor's sweetheart when he was a teenager and he still likes her. When Connor is visited by the ghost of Uncle Wayne, he advises that Connor's life is completely wrong and he will be visited by the ghosts of his girlfriends from the past, the present and the future along the night. Connor is haunted by the ghosts; learns the causes and consequences of his attitude toward women and reevaluates his life.

"Ghosts of my Girlfriends Past" is a funny and entertaining version of Charles Dickens "A Christmas Carol" and "Scrooge", with feelings and love replacing greed and money. Jennifer Garner is amazingly gorgeous and the close of her face in the last scene is mesmerizing. Matthew McConaughey is hilarious in the role of a cynical bachelor and shows a great chemistry with Jennifer Garner. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Minhas Adoráveis Ex-Namoradas" ("My Lovely Ex- Girlfriends")

After being the root cause of his kid brother's wedding being called off, Connor Mead (Matthew McConaughey), a noted womanizer who sees male-female relationships as a strategic game to be enjoyed without becoming ensnared, is visited by the "ghost" of the first girl he ever had sex with. She tells him he will be visited by ghosts of his past, future and present girl friends. These are not ghosts of dead people but possess the shape and memories of the living women.

I found the film to be more enjoyable than I expected it would be. I generally don't care much for Matthew McConaughey films. But he surprised me in this one.

Although generally considered a romantic comedy, it is not a film aiming for laughs. It is a comedy in the sense of not a tragedy, in that it has a happy ending. Instead of funny, the story aims at giving the audience an emotional response.

So is it an original concept? Of course not! But nothing is anymore in Hollywood. They've all been done. A talking mouse, dozens of them. A movie with a turd in it. So get real! The story is all right and the movie has heart felt moments. It's an above average rom-com. 5.8?...go do your own movie so everyone else can shoot it to smithereens.

For a rom-com, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past is as dramatic as it could be, more Dickens than Apatow. Matthew McConaughey as womanizer Connor Mead is type cast as a rake waiting to be changed into a loving human being, The plot with returning dead lovers to teach him a lesson about having feelings is not quite as exotic as it sounds, for it is a device mainly to show him as a callow youth squiring and losing the love of his life, Jenny Perotti (Jennifer Garner). The drama is the disaster he makes of his brother's wedding and the tears he witnesses from the women he has seduced and left.

Since we all know enjoying casual sex is a no-no for descendants of Puritans, the outcome of the ghostly apparitions' lessons is secure in cliché land. Following the party line about scoundrels getting what they deserve is ghost of Uncle Wayne, a sort of Gordon Gekko gone good, an oily ex-Lothario played with relish by another spot-on bit of casting, Michael Douglas. His flowing hair and Hollywood-tinted big glasses call to mind producer Robert Evans (The Kid Stays in the Picture). Although Uncle Wayne is a recovered womanizer, at least for now, his speeches about loneliness and broken hearts ring true only for the moment, but long enough to affect the hero.

It's an enjoyable film with a smart cast, a preposterous story but a serious message about true love and selflessness. Not quite a romantic comedy, but very close indeed.