Summer is kicking off Friday with its first Romantic Comedy. “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past” stars Jennifer Garner as Jenny, the loyal maid of honor who is helping bride Sandra (Lacey Chabert) to have the perfect wedding. The only problem is the anti-marriage pessimistic best man Connor, portrayed by Matthew McConaughey. Connor comes with all of his disdain of love and marriage and preaches to his brother, who happens to be the groom, to escape before it is too late.
When Connor gets out of control he begins to see ghosts. Michael Douglas is the late Uncle Wayne who visits Connor to show him how he came to his path of womanizing and why he needs to change it. We are taken to the past and shown Connor’s first true love, one that happens to be Jenny. The two remained close until high school when Connor was hurt by Jenny. To avoid any future broken hearts he asked his Uncle to show him the ropes of becoming a lady’s man. Reliving his reputation, Connor becomes disgusted with himself. During the reliving of his past, present and future he feels more determined than ever to become a better man. By the time Connor realizes he has been wrong all these years and wants to let love in will it be too late for him and Jenny?
“Ghosts of Girlfriends Past” turns out to be another standard romantic comedy lacking pizzazz. Jennifer Garner had a great performance and Matthew McConaughey proved he could be on screen with clothes on and still be charming. Ladies don’t expect any of McConahottie’s bare chest in this chick flick. Garner and McConaughey had great chemistry, but not even that could salvage this predictable tale. Kicking off the summer with this flick I was hoping for more sizzle, but wound up with a lot fizzle.
**If you were one of the lucky JoReviews visitors to see the film let me know your review**
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Well, I was fortunate enough to sit next to the one and only Jolene Mendez during this preview (Sorry for the noise caused by spilling my Bunch A Crunch all over the floor!) However I didn’t know it until I got home and saw her Twitter page (http://explore.twitter.com/jomendez) with up to the minute status updates on Ghost of Girlfriends Past.
Jo’s sentiments on the movie must have osmosed my direction because I echo her in saying that this movie was indeed a fizzle and the alka seltzer ran out before the show began (Cheezy, I know, deal with it.)
I did however think that it had it’s redeeming moments, mainly carried by Emma Stone, who’s portrayal of the Ghost of Christmas Past was quite humorous and endearing and will probably be the only thing about this movie that will stick with me (Plus she’s hot… Hey, it doesn’t hurt!)
All in all, it wasn’t terrible, for an attempted re-imagination of Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” But I will still watch Muppet Christmas Carol (As I do every Christmas season) over this one.
My expectations are never high for this genre and that remains the case after this screening. Alas, there is a wonderful place in American film for the romantic comedy. It’s a mindless respite from everyday stress and deeper musings…a guilty pleasure at best.
I would label this film, “cute” and at the risk of sounding trite “predictable”. Did anyone think it wouldn’t be?
I would caution younger audiences against this film due to the nature of the sexual banter. My ears burned a bit sitting next to my “tween”.