Ghosts of Girlfriends Past

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Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
Promotional film poster
Directed byMark Waters
Written byJon Lucas
Scott Moore
Produced byBrad Epstein
Jonathan Shestack
Marcus Viscidi
StarringMatthew McConaughey
Jennifer Garner
Emma Stone
Noureen DeWulf
Breckin Meyer
Lacey Chabert
and Michael Douglas
CinematographyDaryn Okada
Edited byBruce Green
Music byRolfe Kent
Distributed byNew Line Cinema
Release date
May 1, 2009
Running time
100 min.
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$99,069,430[1]

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past is a 2009 American romantic comedy film whose plot is based on Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Mark Waters directed a script by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore. Filming spanned February 19, 2008 to July 2008 in Boston, Massachusetts with stars Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner and Emma Stone.[2] The film was released on May 1, 2009.[3]

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past features a wedding and the day before the wedding, instead of the Christmas Eve and Christmas like the story that the movie is based on. The three ghosts shares similar appearances with the original descriptions of the same, and the movie basically shares the traditional plot points from the book.

Plot

The story concerns Connor Mead, a womanizing bachelor and high profile photographer with a disdain for marriage. After a routine photo shoot, Connor drives up to his family's estate for the wedding of his younger brother, Paul, to his girlfriend, Sandra. Connor soon encounters his former sweetheart, Jenny, and eventually manages to offend the majority of the guests with his views on romance and his attempts to convince Paul not to go through with the wedding.

Later in the evening, Connor visits the restroom and encounters the spirit of his late uncle, Wayne Mead, a former womanizer and Connor's mentor. Uncle Wayne tells Connor that he'll be visited by three ghosts and that he'll learn something about himself before the night is over.

Soon after, Connor goes to his room to meet one of the bridesmaids only to find the Ghost of Girlfriends Past, appearing to him in the form of an old high school girlfriend. Together, they revisit Connor's past relationships, particularly his childhood friendship and eventual romance with Jenny. During a high school prom Conner's hesitation allows a senior to dance and kiss Jenny. Conner, heartbroken, he runs from the scene and meets his Uncle who schools him in the art of seduction. Conner and Jenny meet up again in the future and rekindle their romance after several weeks of dating, Connor and Jenny slept together with Connor becoming scared and leaving while Jenny was asleep, never looking back. When Jenny awoke to find Connor gone, she was visibly heartbroken. After being taken through the myriad of meaningless flings Connor had from that point to the present, he finds himself back in the present.

Following an altercation with the guests over Connor's (accidental) destruction of the cake and being shot down by Jenny after he poorly attempts to reconcile, Connor angrily storms out of the house and finds the Ghost of Girlfriends Present in the form of his assistant because even though she and Connor aren't dating, she is the only constant female figure in his life. She shows Connor how everyone is acting with him not around. Many of the guests endlessly put him down. Paul, however, speaks about how Connor looked out for him growing up and how he has hope that Connor will someday change for the better. Connor also sees Jenny, upset by a comment made by one of the bridesmaids, being cheered up by Brad, a fellow doctor that Paul and Sandra are trying to hook Jenny up with. Connor is upset that his actions and attitude are bringing the two closer, and even more distraught when he sees a trio of women that he had earlier dumped in a conference call bonding with his assistant over Connor's disregard for them.

Returning to the house, Connor finds Sandra angry and upset over an earlier revelation by Connor that Paul had had a previous fling with one of the bridesmaids, cheating on Sandra early in their relationship. Connor's attempts to mend the situation are hindered by Jenny as she defends Sandra's position. Paul, frustrated by the turn of events, tells Connor to leave.

Connor walks out to his car and finally encounters the Ghost of Girlfriends Future, a hauntingly beautiful woman who shows him a church where Jenny gets married to Brad. While a lonely and unmarried Paul sits in the back of the church. Time fast forwards to an older Paul attending Connor's funeral. He is the only mourner. Uncle Wayne appears again and tells Connor that this is the path he chose before pushing him backwards into his own grave while all of his ex-girlfriends proceed to bury him.

Connor finally wakes up and is excited to greet the day until he learns that his brother's wedding has been canceled. Connor rushes to intercept the bridal party (driving and ultimately crashing Wayne's Stabin Wagon while playing Burning Love) and manages to convince Sandra that she should forgive Paul and take him back, to which she happily accepts. That evening, Connor gives a speech about Paul and Sandra at the wedding, stating how much their parents would have loved her. He also acts as the photographer for the wedding, something he'd refused to do before as the former photographer wasn't there. He leaves the reception and finds Jenny in the backyard and once again tries to reconcile with Jenny, proving that he is serious by showing Jenny a picture of herself that he had taken as a child that he'd promised to keep always and did. Jenny is touched and kisses him. They are last seen dancing outside in the snow to a song that he'd been to afraid to ask her to dance to in high school.

Cast

Production

It was originally set up at Touchstone Pictures with Ben Affleck attached to play the lead character. Production was to begin in the fall of 2003, but budget concerns and the failure of Gigli resulted in the cancellation of the film one month prior to shooting. In a bit of irony, his wife, Jennifer Garner, played the main love interest when the project began again. It was primarily filmed at Castle Hill in Ipswich, MA.[6]

In December 2008, the film was granted a PG-13 rating for sexual content throughout, some language, and a drug reference.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack features some songs of the film and others exclusives there not appear on the film.[7]

  1. Ghosts Of Girlfriends Past - All Too Much
  2. Hush - Gavin Rossdale
  3. Got A Lot Of Love For You Baby - The Ralph Sall Experience
  4. Keep On Loving You - Reo Speedwagon
  5. You Can't Hurry Love The Ralph Sall Experience
  6. Ladies Night - Kool & The Gang
  7. Safety Dance - Men Without Hats
  8. Yeah (Dream Of Me) - All Too Much
  9. Holding Back The Years - Simply Red
  10. Sleep - All Too Much

Reception

Critical reaction

As of May 24, 2009 the film received negative reviews and holds a 28% rating on the website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 126 reviews."[8] Metacritic lists it with a 34 out of 100, which indicates "generally negative reviews", based on 29 reviews.[9]

Box office

On the film's opening weekend, it debuted at #2 with a gross of $15,411,434 (3,175 theaters, $4,854 average), far behind X-Men Origins: Wolverine's $85,085,003 gross.[10] The film made $55,250,026 domestically[11] and has a worldwide total of $99,069,430.

DVD Release

The film was released on DVD on September 22, 2009.

References

  1. ^ http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=ghostsofgirlfriendspast.htm
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Gregg Goldstein (2008-02-04). "Five to haunt 'Girlfriends'". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2008-05-16.
  3. ^ The Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009) - Release Dates
  4. ^ Dave McNary (2008-02-06). "Trio in 'Past' cast". Variety. Retrieved 2008-05-16.
  5. ^ Bryon Perry (2008-02-13). "Noureen DeWulf". Variety. Retrieved 2008-11-13.
  6. ^ [1]
  7. ^ http://www.amazon.com/Ghosts-Girlfriends-Past-Original-Soundtrack/dp/B002NOYXC2
  8. ^ "Ghosts of Girlfriend's Past (2009)". IGN Entertainment. Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2009-05-24.
  9. ^ "Ghosts of Girlfriend's Past (2009): Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2009-05-24.
  10. ^ Box Office Mojo
  11. ^ The Numbers

External links

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