Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009) * * *

Directed by:  Mark Waters

Starring:  Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner, Michael Douglas, Emma Stone, Breckin Meyer, Lacey Chabert

The saddest part of the happy ending of A Christmas Carol is that Scrooge had wasted a lot of years being a prick and might be too old to truly enjoy his newly acquired happiness.    At least Connor Mead (McConaughey), the proudly single, lecherous ladies' man in Ghosts of Girlfriends Past is young enough to reap the benefits of his newfound identity once the aforementioned ghosts make him see the error of his ways.    I didn't give away a spoiler.   The movie proudly borrows from A Christmas Carol and makes Connor its Scrooge, only he isn't against Christmas, just the idea of monogamy and marriage.   

Yes, Connor is a shallow womanizer who hits on the mother of the bride the night before his younger brother's wedding (which he basically decries as humbug), but he isn't so far gone that he's irredeemable.   He has a pleasant, superficial personality which masks emotional scars from his teenage years.   The girl he had a crush on danced and made out with another guy at a school dance, so his Uncle Wayne (Douglas), teaches him the ways of being a lounge lizard/lothario so Connor would never have to be brokenhearted anymore.    Connor learned the lessons all too well, and when true love stares him in the face in the form of Jenny (Garner), the girl he's loved all his life, he shuns her for fear of being hurt.  

Uncle Wayne, by the way, is the Jacob Marley of the movie.   He appears to Connor as a ghost warning Connor of the pending spirits' visits and pleading with him to see the error of his ways.    Connor thought Uncle Wayne was the coolest, but Wayne lets him in on a little secret:   Years of womanizing led to a lonely life and an even lonelier afterlife.   "No one will miss you," he tells Connor, who like Wayne once thought he could live forever as a guy who can bounce from woman to woman without feeling anything. 

Yes, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past is a tearjerker romantic comedy with no qualms about being exactly what it is.    It moves ahead confidently.   Sure, it's silly, but wasn't Scrooge also?    But, I'll be damned if the vision of Connor's funeral didn't choke me up.    It all worked, and doesn't apologize for it.    McConaughey can lay on the oily charm with the best of them, as can Douglas, who of course nails it.    Garner is a smart, sympathetic love interest who isn't quite ready to believe every word that comes out of Connor's mouth due to their history.    She puts up a bit of a fight, but at least unlike Belle from A Christmas Carol, she hasn't disappeared from Connor's life so a happy ending is still possible.    This is one of Emma Stone's first movies, and as the ghost of girlfriends past, she is simply winning with a smile and laugh that lights up the screen.