Hey, folks. Capone in Chicago here.

You may want to sit down in anticipation of what I'm going to say next, but Ghosts of Girlfriends Past is a lot funnier, more decadent, and charming than I ever would have guessed. That said, it still has many of the major problems that most Hollywood romantic comedies have today, but they are tempered with some better-than-average performances from a couple of the supporting players and taking full advantage of the charms of Matthew McConaughey. And why wouldn't he take a role like Conner Mead? The man is a portrait photographer to the stars, with a reputation for getting women out of their clothes in front of and behind the camera. Hell, 75 percent of this movie is women throwing themselves at Conner and telling him or each other how hot the guy is. McConaughey has played characters like this before, but I don't recall him doing so with such abandon and a willingness to look like a absolute pig. One favorite early scene is Conner breaking up with three women at once via conference call.

The setting for the film is the wedding of Conner's brother (Breckin Meyer) at the estate of the brothers' late Uncle Wayne. Most of the bridesmaids have slept with Conner over the years, the bride (Lacy Chabert) is a nervous wreck, and Jenny, the woman who holds the title of Conner's one true love, is on hand to complicate everything for the noted philanderer. Now I'll admit, I never really got Jennifer Garner, and this film doesn't really help her case as being a strong actress or a great beauty, but I'll give credit where it's due. McConaughey does such a convincing job pining for her that I started to buy into her relevance in his life and mine, if only for a couple of hours.

It goes without saying that suspension of believe is a big part of this film since Ghosts of Girlfriends Past adapts the basic premise of Dickens' A Christmas Carol, and turns it into a story about believing in love rather than the holidays. First off, the ghost of Uncle Wayne (Michael Douglas, looking like Robert Evans and absolutely relishing in the skeeviness of playing one of the world's great womanizers). Almost every line this guy delivers is not only funny but also on some terrible level true. He tells Conner that three ghosts will visit him during the night before his brother's wedding (which Conner has managed to put in jeopardy in a matter of hours), and attempt to set him down the path to righteous relationship behavior and attitude. The first ghost is that of the girl Conner first had sex with in the '80s, played by the always-amusing Emma Stone (The House Bunny, Superbad). She shows Conner scenes from his life as a kid, including the death of his parents, his first meeting with Jenny, and some of the life lessons bestowed upon him by Uncle Wayne. These are some of the absolute best scenes in the film, end of story.

The middle ghost is actually Conner's personal assistant (Noureen DeWulf), who allows him to listen in on what the wedding party is saying about him while he sleeps — nothing really exciting there. The third ghost, a mute beauty that shows him why lies in store for him. If you're familiar with A Christmas Carol, you kind of know where this segment ends up.

A couple other supporting players worth mentioning including Robert Forster as the bride's ex-Marine dad, who manages to weave an ultra-bloody story about his days in Korea into his wedding toast, and Anne Archer as the bride's mother and the first of many women Conner hits on during the rehearsal dinner. Writers Jon Lucas and Scott Moore have certainly improved their game since penning the god-awful Four Christmases from last year (and their upcoming film, The Hangover, looks even better). I kind of wish Ghosts has really been allowed to cut loose with some R-rated dialogue from McConaughey and Douglas, but what's here is mostly funny and functional. Director Mark Waters (Mean Girls, Just Like Heaven, The Spiderwick Chronicles) can't help but travel into the realm of physical comedy (an entire sequence built around a collapsing wedding cake just isn't that funny) and sentimentality (it is a wedding movie after all). Still, he allows his actors room to do decent work in most cases.

The real surprise here was McConaughey, who I've certainly enjoyed over the years — most recently in Tropic Thunder. He's doing something just different enough to keep me interested, while still being allowed to emit large doses of Southern charm and slick personality. Now someone explain to me why one brother has a Southern accent and the other doesn't. Perhaps another day. Ghosts of Girlfriends Past genuinely surprised me. It's not a great movie by any standards, but it is highly watchable thanks to some wonderful displays of male aggression and shameless behavior. The plain and simple fact is that I laughed quite a bit during this film, as did most of the men and women in the audience. All demographics will be satisfied to varying degrees. Put that on the poster!

-- Capone
capone@aintitcoolmail.com