Cast: Michael Douglas, Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner, Brendin Meyer, Lacey Chabert, Emma Stone

Our rating: 2 out of 5

Rated: PG13

reviewed by Rissi C.

Ever since the first trailer premiered for this film, I knew it would be a must-see. While it’s both unrealistic and clichéd, it is indeed a fun way to spend an afternoon for those of us willing to “overlook” its many faults.

When Connor and his brother Paul are orphaned after their parents' death in a car accident, their Uncle Wayne (Douglas) takes them in. During junior high, Connor’s crush on a fellow classmate, Jenny, blossoms but he cannot work up the courage to tell her about his feelings. Years later, Connor (McConaughey) is now a famed photographer who has shot many popular magazine covers. Immediately after a Vanity Fair cover shoot and a brief tryst with the pop star involved, Connor leaves for his brother’s wedding weekend. Things are about to get a little uncomfortable when Connor discovers three out of the four bridesmaids are his former lovers, among them Jenny (Garner). Regardless, Connor wastes no time in trying to charm the fourth bridesmaid and his brother's mother-in-law, making enemies with his-soon-to-be-sister-in-law Sandy (Chabert) and destroying the wedding cake. Just when he thinks he may be losing it, Connor finds his deceased uncle in his suite, who tells him he’ll be visited by three ghosts.  Thinking this is all one big joke and as a result of a few too many drinks, Connor tries to laugh it off … until the ghost of girlfriends past (Stone) shows up.

With a second look at the past in store for him, Connor has no choice but to go along with the whole ghost thing, but will a second look at his past change his future or will he continue to be immune to his feelings? This romantic comedy is no different from anything that was made this last year, but nevertheless is sweetly entertaining while at the same time offending its audience with repetitive innuendo. The film opens with Connor at a photo shoot showing women running around in their lingerie, Connor ogles them and shares some banter before his secretary asks if she should “book them." We see Connor with a model that gets a bit racy (dialogue and she starts to undress) but it cuts away before we see much else. As a teen, Wayne takes Connor into a bar for his first lesson; we experience Connor’s first sexual encounter in high school (lots of heavy kissing before she pushes Connor into a closet, we then see him stager out). There is the typical “post-sex” scene between an unmarried couple. Connor hits on his brother's mother-in-law and lets it slip that Paul slept with one of the bridesmaids.

Numerous other sexual quips/conversations and experiences are mentioned (including French kissing, multiple sex partners, homosexuality, and casual sex). A woman tells a man she’ll cut off his “favorite appendage." Profanity is sprinkled throughout but takes a backseat to the sexuality. Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, is cute with just enough romance and all the right elements to make it “fun." It has a fantastic well-known cast and an adorable plot. In case you haven’t connected the dots, this is a spin-off of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and indeed it is quite familiar right down to Connor thrusting open his window near the end and questioning someone. The sad part about this story isn’t that Connor must learn something but rather when exactly he learns it. Watching this, I wondered where the dramatic transformation took place for him. True, he gives a grand speech to Sandy, that is meaningful while sounding genuine, but other than his seemingly sincere quest to right a dreadful wrong, did he really become a better person? I realize coming from Hollywood, you cannot take something like this so seriously as to expect characters to have any sort of believable transformation, and viewers must consider time constraint.

This movie depicts Connor as an incurable womanizer, despite giving his heart away years ago. While played for laughs, it was very unrealistic to think that Connor had as many “girlfriends” as shown (most were brief one night or hour-long flings; that certainly doesn’t qualify as a girlfriend). Connor truly did fall for Jenny and was scared because of genuine feelings he felt for her. No matter how much he wanted to repress them, he could not. But as another reviewer so aptly put it, the film chooses to portray that love came after she had sex with him (at first Jenny resists, knowing the kind of man he was). It’s discouraging to see this skewed notion of love. Jenny does want something that goes beyond just the physical, and the film does a nice job of highlighting this in a montage sequence. The cast was excellent. McConaughey oozed charm and had just enough humor to make this role believable and even manages to deliver a credibly emotional speech at the end. Seeing Garner back in a leading lady role was nice; she was lovely as ever. On a fun trivia note it was ironic to see the same actress play a younger Garner as in 13 Going on 30.

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past isn’t faultless, but if you can see past the obvious imperfections it has some poignant truths that illustrate the loneliness Connor is left with in having lived the selfish, destructive life he chose. I won’t say this isn’t a worthwhile story, but is definitely for older audiences. If you have the capabilities, wait and see this one edited. It will be one hundred times more worth your time.