Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
Director: Mark Waters
Starring: Mathew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner, and Michael Douglas
MPAA: Rated PG-13 for sexual content throughout, some language and a drug reference.
The director of “Freaky Friday”, “Mean Girls”, and “Just Like Heaven” brings us another fun little romantic comedy that uses Charles Dickens’ classic “A Christmas Carol” as a frame for the womanizing Mathew McConaughey to fall in love again. He is the Scrooge, and love is bah humbug. But he is taken on the journey of the classic fairy tale meeting his womanizing uncle, Michael Douglas playing the Jacob Marley style character, and shown his misdeeds to women’s hearts. Of course it is not the very active sex life he is condemned for, no sex is okay, but it is the toying with women’s hearts that he is to blame for. No one ever seems to get the point that flagrant pre-marital sex and heartache go hand in hand and as the many loose women fail to realize, the cause of their grief is their eagerness to screw the hottest thing on the market, hoping he will treat them differently than all the other women he has left alone after a one night stand.
This is a very sexual comedy that does what most Hollywood films continue to do, blur the lines of casual sex, love, and marriage. Of course the final theme is that true happiness is monogamous love, but that is found only after years of casual sex and flagrant promiscuity. In fact promiscuity is the prevailing theme and as the many women McConaughey seduces complain about his arrogant and womanizing ways, they also remark how they sure wouldn’t mind another roll in the hay, keeping it causal though, cause that is okay.
“Ghosts of Girlfriends Past” is a decent film as far as laughs and heart go. It is pretty cookie cutter on two fields though. One is that it has everything any adaptation of Dickens’ classic has, including waking up the next morning and asking a little boy outside if it is Christmas, and two there is everything a wedding disaster film has including a psychotic bride and a ruined cake. The film follows each mold precisely, hoping no one notices the aged formula through the camouflage of plunging necklines, blunt sexual dialogue, and bantering.
There is not much acting involved in this film. No one stretches to change character at all. Jennifer Garner is smart and sexy as any heroine in a romantic comedy must be. She is fun and flirty, and likeable, but nothing new or different than any other movie...except “Elektra” but that was terrible and we will pretend it never happened. Mathew McConaughey is equally as entertaining as Jenifer Gardner and is as cookie cutter as they come. Anyone in fact looking for any kind of interesting acting choices should look elsewhere , but of course that is not who this film is marketed to.
This is a fun little date movie, but its heavy sexual themes might be a little turn off for some. The sexuality is not easily edited form the film, and for those who prefer clearplay and the like, this might be one to avoid totally. For those who enjoy the slightly more scandalous they may enjoy this fun twist on “A Christmas Carol” though it is definitely not a Christmas movie. We have a 6 out of 10, until the film tries to end and bumps its self to a 5.6 or so just for some really dumb closing choices. It is a fun date for the ladies, but nothing to satisfy the real movie lovers.
Sex/Nudity - 7 out of 10 – There are a lot of cleavage, women in underwear, and sexual situations. A man speaks rather bluntly to different women trying to get them to sleep with him. There is no actual nudity, but some kissing and heavy petting and implied sex.
Violence/Gore – 2 out of 10 – A man hits another man. A man his slapped by a few women. A man is thrown into a grave and dirt is dumped on him(this is a dream like sequence).
Profanity – 5 out of 10 – There is a ton of sexual dialogue, and about 50 or so obscenities including religious exclamations and name calling.
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