![]() Back-to-Back Poster: The poster has main characters Connor Mead and Jennifer Perotti in this setup, with Perotti holding the end of a scarf that's around Mead's neck like a leash.The three ghosts share similar appearances with the original descriptions, and the film shares the traditional plot points from the book. ![]() ![]() Wayne informs Connor that, over the course of the evening, he will be visited by three ghosts who will lead him through his romantic past, present, and future.Īs one can notice from this synopsis, the plot is based on Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, featuring a wedding day and the day before, rather than the familiar Christmas and Christmas Eve from A Christmas Carol. After Connor delivers a drunken speech at the rehearsal dinner where he says that love isn't real, he's met in the bathroom by the ghost of his uncle Wayne (Douglas), the man who taught Connor everything he knows about seducing women. He attends his brother Paul's wedding, where he becomes reacquainted with Jenny Perotti (Garner), Connor's childhood friend and the only girl who's ever captured his heart. It’s almost impressive how many stereotypes the filmmakers were able to cram into a two-hour film.Ghosts of Girlfriends Past is a 2009 American romantic comedy film that stars Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner, and Michael Douglas.Ĭonnor Mead (McConaughey) is a famous photographer and serial womanizer. There’s the shrieking windbag Sandra (played by Lacey Chabert), sex objects like Denice the Bridesmaid (Amanda Walsh), annoying little girls like the Ghost of Girlfriends Past (Stone), the sexy divorcee who is flattered by her boobs being grabbed without her consent like Vonda Volkom (Anne Archer), and, last but not least, Jenny Perotti (Garner) the “one of the guys” brunette who can’t help but be attracted to male chauvinist pigs. This argument might be convincing if not for the portrayal of the female characters in Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, who run the gamut of degrading stereotypes against women. Related: Jennifer Garner's Best Comedy Movies, Ranked Why should the film itself be held accountable for the beliefs of its protagonist? Especially since McConaughey’s character learns the error of his ways in the end, and that everything Douglas’ character ever taught him about treating women like a slab of meat was actually a bad thing. If Lucas and Moore were inclined to defend the sexism in their screenplay, then that defense would likely argue that Ghosts of Girlfriends Past “deals” with sexism without actually being sexist. It’s the kind of early career role that Stone would never agree to play again. But playing a 1980s teenager with a head full of hairspray and mouth full of braces, there’s really nothing she can do to make the character any less annoying. The first of the three is the titular “Ghost of Girlfriends Past” (played by Emma Stone). The film’s plot is built around Connor Meade (McConaughey) being visited by three ghosts on the night before his brother’s wedding. ![]() Related: Best Matthew McConaughey Comedy Movies, Ranked In fact, even famous for it.” That is actual dialogue from the film. Meade is a famous photographer and serial womanizer described by other characters in the script as, “The Great Connor Meade,” and, “the biggest jerk ever. The film’s protagonist Connor Meade (McConaughey), functions as a sexist reimagining of Ebenezer Scrooge. And with Robert Forster’s supporting role as Sergeant Volkom looking uncannily like The General character in White Christmas (1954), Ghosts of Girlfriends Past cannot escape the shadow of Christmas.Īside from removing Christmas, screenwriters Jon Lucas and Scott Moore kept the spine of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol largely intact. The resulting setting is not exactly a far cry from the snowy London streets of A Christmas Carol. Yet, the film takes place in a snowy castle in New England whose interior walls look as though they’ve been stripped of any decorations that might be perceived as Christmasy. Ghosts of Girlfriends Past substituted Dickens’ Christmastime setting with a contemporary wedding, swapping Christmas Eve and Christmas Day out with the day before and the day of Meade's brother’s wedding. But some took offense to the film’s blatant misogyny, which, surprisingly, was not something that screenwriters Jon Lucas and Scott Moore took from their 19th century source material. Upon its release most critics dismissed Ghosts of Girlfriends Past as a cheap Dickens knockoff. Ghosts of Girlfriends Past is a loose adaptation of Dickens’ Christmas Carol.
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