Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
| Ghosts of Girlfriends Past | |
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Promotional film poster
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| Directed by | Mark Waters |
| Produced by | Brad Epstein Jonathan Shestack |
| Written by |
Jon Lucas Scott Moore |
| Starring |
Matthew McConaughey Jennifer Garner Breckin Meyer Lacey Chabert Robert Forster Anne Archer Emma Stone Michael Douglas |
| Music by | Rolfe Kent |
| Cinematography | Daryn Okada |
| Edited by | Bruce Green |
| Distributed by | New Line Cinema |
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Release date
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Running time
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95 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $102.2 million |
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 Massachusetts with stars Matthew McConaughey, Breckin Meyer, Jennifer Garner, Lacey Chabert and Michael Douglas. The film was released on May 1, 2009.
Ghosts of Girlfriends Past features a wedding day and the day before, rather than the familiar Christmas and Christmas Eve from A Christmas Carol. The three ghosts share similar appearances with the original descriptions, and the film shares the traditional plot points from the book.
Connor Mead (Matthew McConaughey) is a famous photographer and confirmed womanizer. He takes a break from his playboy lifestyle to attend his brother's wedding, where he becomes reacquainted with Jenny Perotti (Jennifer Garner), Connor's childhood friend and the only girl who's ever captured his heart. 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 (Michael Douglas), a roué who taught Connor everything he knows about seducing women. 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.
The first ghost is the "Ghost of Girlfriends Past" in the form of Allison Vandermeersh (Emma Stone), one of his high school girlfriends and his first lover. Together, they revisit scenes from his past, focusing on his relationship with Jenny. In 1982, Connor and Jenny were very close as children; she gave him his first instant camera which he used to take her picture, promising to keep it forever. When Connor's parents died in a car accident, Jenny consoles Connor throughout the years without them, as she, his brother Paul and his uncle Wayne were all he had left. By middle school, the two were on the verge of romance, but Connor's hesitation at asking her for a dance caused Jenny to dance with and kiss another boy. Heartbroken, Connor was told by Wayne that he must avoid romance at all costs in order not to feel such pain again. For the next two years, Wayne schooled Connor in the art of seduction. When he next saw Jenny, at a high school party, Connor ignored her and kissed another girl named Allison, whom he had his first sexual encounter with. Several years later, as adults, Connor and Jenny rekindled their romance, but Jenny forced him to woo her for several weeks in an attempt to rid him of his womanizing ways. After they finally did have sex, Connor falls in love with her, but when he lies in bed with her to fall asleep beside her, he remembers his uncle Wayne's warnings about sleeping and spooning with the opposite sex after a night of passion. Realizing this, he panics, running out on her so he won't be hurt. The next morning, Jenny wakes up alone and broken-hearted. His relationships thereafter consisted of a series of very short flings.
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