The Hindu : Karnataka News : Some momentary pleasure

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Monday, Aug 31, 2009
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Karnataka

Karnataka

Some momentary pleasure

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (English)

Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Michael Douglas, Jennifer Garner

Director: Mark Waters

Director Mark Waters has turned Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol into a usual romantic comedy. It is the story of an incorrigible womaniser whose playful past has come back to haunt him.

Matthew McConaughey is Conner Mead, a debonair hotshot photographer who loves to dump girls once they fall in love with him. As he goes against his rule to attend the marriage of his brother, he comes across his childhood sweetheart, Jenny, the only girl who won his heart.

After delivering a speech against love and marriage in a drunken stupor, he finds the ghost of his uncle Wayne (Michael Douglas) in the men’s washroom. It was Wayne who had chiselled in him the winsome traits of a womaniser. He tells him that he will be visited by the ghosts of his three girlfriends over the course of the evening. He takes it as a nightmare but the forewarning comes true. During the night Matthew travels in the past, the present and the future to realise his true self. He realises what made him a playboy sans emotions and that if he continued this way he would die a lonely death.

It is a frothy film interspersed with some humorous situations. Unfortunately, you know where the script is headed quite early, and after that there are hardly any surprises… just a wait for a witty line here and there.

McConaughey is immensely believable as the stud in tremendous form, but when it comes to displaying emotions he is found wanting.

Douglas as the champion playboy is effortlessly rakish and Garner brings the requisite grace.

Keep the expectations in check and chances are that the ghosts might hook you for some momentary pleasure.

A.K.

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