Movie Review:

Any film starring the self-regarding, teak-veneered charisma vacuum that is Matthew McConaughey has more to overcome than most. So the fact that the rom-com Dickens riff Ghosts of Girlfriends Past is even sporadically entertaining is no mean feat.

The reasons that this latest addition to McConaughey’s romantic oeuvre is better than, say, Fool’s Gold or How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days, are twofold. First, and crucially, Ghosts doesn’t star Kate Hudson. Instead, Jennifer Garner plays the love interest, bringing a spirited intelligence to the spiky, occasionally cynical, screenplay and in the process making the rest of the cast look better than they probably are.

Second, McConaughey is for once not cast as an incorrigible charmer. As a celebrity photographer, Connor Mead, he’s a truly reprehensible excuse for a human being. Within the first 30 seconds of the film his loathsome credentials are established. He oils his way through a Hollywood interpretation of a photographer’s studio, full of knicker-clad girls in vaguely Sapphic poses. His pick-up lines steam like freshly deposited heaps of manure. Having failed to persuade his assistant to do his dirty work, Connor simultaneously breaks up with his three latest girlfriends on a conference call. And having arrived (late) at his younger brother’s wedding, he tries to talk the groom out of his impending marriage. It’s one of the more interesting roles McConaughey has taken recently.

Of course, this being a rom-com, Connor must realise the error of his ways and settle down into a committed, monogamous relationship. And despite the high concept of having A Christmas Carol-style spectral visitations, the film is just as predictable as any other of its ilk. The wedding backdrop — cake-based hilarity, champagne-fuelled social gaffs and frock envy — seems to be an essential component of almost every romantic comedy of the past five years.

But even if you can see the feel-good happy ending a mile away, there are a few amusing moments along the way. Michael Douglas is entertainingly repulsive as Connor’s romantic mentor, the sleazy millionaire ladies man Uncle Wayne. And Emma Stone, playing the ghost of girlfriends past, is great — her performance fizzes and she gamely submits to the worst of 1980s fashion.

The film’s main problem is, inevitably, McConaughey. He has been playing vapid, two-dimensional characters in vapid, two-dimensional films for so long now that he appears to have lost the ability to give his roles any depth. And that’s a real problem when your job requires that you should be able to make the audience fall a little in love with you despite themselves.

—Reviewed by Wendy Ide—

Rated: PG-13 for sexual content throughout, some language and a drug reference
Runtime: 1 min 40 secs
Genre: Comedy | Romance
Theatrical Release: May 1, 2009 Wide
Box Office: $30,054,386
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner, Michael Douglas, Breckin Meyer, Lacey Chabert, Emma Stone, Anne Archer, Robert Forster, Amanda Walsh
Director: Mark Waters
Screenwriter: Scott Moore, John Lucas
Producer: Jon Shestack, Brad Epstein
Composer: Rolfe Kent
Studio: New Line Cinema
Link(s): Official Site, Imdb, Trailer

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