GHOSTS OF GIRLFRIENDS PAST (Alliance, 2009) D: Mark Waters, w/ Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner. Rating: NN DVD package: n/a Rating: NN
What’s great about Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol is that you can swipe the structure and fill it with any moral point you want via comic or horrific exaggeration, so it must have seemed a good idea for a romantic comedy. Trouble is, they left out most of the comedy, and the romance doesn’t work.
[rssbreak]
Matthew McConaughey is too convincing as the heartless womanizer for us to believe that Jennifer Garner – who has little flair for comedy but does radiate clear-eyed intelligence – would ever pine for him. He plays Connor Mead, a hugely successful stud who shows up at his brother’s country-house wedding, offends everyone and has the instructive but not very funny dreams.
Michael Douglas plays the Marley’s ghost role as a Rat Pack swinger teaching the young Connor how to pick up girls. It’s a perfect use of the moral decay that clings to Douglas in every role.
Most of the laughs come from Emma Stone, who plays the spirit guide to girlfriends past as a rambunctious 16-year-old. The best gag comes at the tail end of the closing credits and has nothing to do with anything.
There are no extras. (That’s a good thing.)
EXTRAS Widescreen. English, French audio and subtitles.
