Proof that they’re running out of romantic comedy ideas for Matthew McConaughey comes in “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past,” a lightweight number that reaches back to “A Christmas Carol” for its plot device.
McConaughey plays fashion photographer Connor Mead, whose womanizing ways include breaking up with three women at once during a video conference call. To be fair, he’s in a hurry, because he has another liaison to keep.
Home for the wedding of his brother (Breckin Meyer), this Don Juan is confronted by the ghost of his late uncle (Michael Douglas in tinted glasses), a legendary swinger. The movie’s funniest scenes are flashbacks depicting the uncle tutoring his green nephew in the fine art of lovin’ the ladies.
The ghost, still a self-styled playa in the afterlife, warns Connor that he will be visited by three more spirits during the night, to remind him of the shallowness of eternal bachelorhood.
Knocking around the wedding party is a childhood sweetheart, played by Jennifer Garner (the actress, as usual, seems too interesting for the material at hand). She still carries a torch for her old beau, and she and the rest of us must hang around while Connor realizes the error of his ways.
I doubt that Charles Dickens would give this version of his classic story a thumbs-up. For the rest of us, “Ghosts” offers passable entertainment, as “Mean Girls” director Mark Waters squeezes some laughs out of a flimsy premise.
In fact, “Ghosts” isn’t exactly bad, or offensive, or incompetent. It just feels slick and familiar and slightly greasy, like one of Connor Mead’s pick-up lines.
Is Matthew McConaughey believable in the part? Sure. Is the role such a slam-dunk for him he sometimes looks bored? Uh-huh.
The cast is filled out by Anne Archer (Michael Douglas’ “Fatal Attraction” wife) and Robert Forster as the mother and father of the bride. The bride’s played by Lacey Chabert, who is screechy.
Jennifer Garner’s dialogue, especially her rejoinders to Connor’s smarmy talk, makes you wish she had equal time with McConaughey. But that’s not the way it lines up, and this movie is weaker because of it.
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