Thurgood Marshall graduation 2012
Badin vs. Versailles
Law Enforcement Memorial Day
Home > Blogs > Sir Critic on Cinema > Archives > 2009 > May > 04
Monday, May 4, 2009
‘Ghosts of Girlfriends Past’ fades all too quickly
Usually when camps of people sharply divide on a movie, I find myself caught somewhere in the middle.
And so it goes with Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, which is neither the monstrosity many critics describe, nor is is it the “cuuuuuuuute” romantic comedy many women at my screening were fawning over. (They were almost certainly persuaded by certain charms of Matthew McConaughey, to which I am immune.)
Instead. Ghosts is a sometimes pleasant but ultimately ordinary riff on A Christmas Carol (why such a movie was released in May I do not understand, but that’s beside my point.) In the umpteenth 200th version of the story, our “Scrooge” is Connor Mead, a Don Juan of the love-em-and-leave em variety.
The lone exception is Jenny (Jennifer Garner) his childhood friend and the one who got away. Indeed, Connor’s resentment over this is the underlying reason he became a selfish jerk. So when Connor is asked to be best man at his brother’s wedding, he’s haunted by several spirits who try to show him the error of his ways.
It’s actually not a bad idea for a story, but I will charitably say this movie didn’t find the best way to tell it. It’s not just that the screenplay is unrelentingly predictable, it’s also that many of the jokes are horrid. In one scene when it starts to rain, Michael Douglas, playing the Marley equivalent, says “Those are all the lady tears women have shed over you.” Uccch. Whoever came up with that line should never be allowed to hold a pen or touch a keyboard again.
As I expected, the ever-watchable Garner is the best thing about the movie because she’s playing the only real human being in the movie. Everyone else, McConaughey included, is playing a stick-figure. I believed that someone could fall head-over-heels for Garner, and I believed she would be torn apart being rejected by her first love.
A successful romantic comedy, however, needs to make me care about more than one-half of the couple. McConaughey goes to such lengths to be a cad, I didn’t buy his redemption, nor did I believe he really deserved it - something that is required for any Scrooge type.
When the movie ended I found myself saying not “God bless us, everyone.” It was more along the lines of “Forgive them, Lord, for they know not what they do.”
GRADE: C
Permalink | Comments (3) | Post your comment | Categories: Reviews
