If Connor Mead (Matthew McConaughey) were a real photographer, he might be Annie Leibovitz. If Connor Mead were a real man, he might be Hugh Hefner when he was in his thirties. If he were a character in literature, he would be the Ebenezer Scrooge to Love's Romance. And when his busy schedule of photographing nearly-naked women and chalking up one night stands is interrupted by his brother Paul's (Breckin Mayer) wedding weekend in upstate New York, well, you can pretty much guess what happens.

Basically, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past is A Christmas Carol, except in place of Christmas is a wedding. Instead of tearing down tinsel and knocking over Christmas trees, Connor rips down tulle and topples cakes. Instead of defaming Santa Claus and tranquilizing Rudolf, he pronounces love "comfort food for the weak" and tells his brother his Jag is available if he needs to make a break for it. And since—unlike Connor likes to believe—every interaction isn't just a casual encounter, as his selfish lifestyle collides with final wedding preparations and unresolved feelings with his childhood friend Jenny (Jennifer Garner), let's just say that everyone's not exactly a happy camper.

Thankfully, just as Scrooge was sent a few ghosts to teach him a thing or two about Christmas, Connor is sent a little supernatural help to teach him a thing or two about love. Flying around on beds, hiding from the deluge of every tear ever shed because of him, and dancing to the best mix of the 80s, 90s, and now, the journey is definitely a bit cheesy. Since we pretty much already know that Connor is a sleazebag when it comes to his romantic relationships, his journey into the past is more about how he became the way he is and the moments in which love almost pulled him in a different direction. Mostly to blame is his hard-partying uncle (Michael Douglas) who taught him that "the power in a relationship lies with the person who cares less." Very nearly cracking his façade on numerous occasions is Jenny, the girl who knew him before his parents died, who made him wait more than a day for sex, and who almost got him to stay through the night. And the resolution that seems to have kept him on the wrong path even when given the chance to step onto the right one, the pledge to never again feel the way he did when he watched Jenny have her first kiss with another boy.

At first, Connor is simply annoyed, maybe even a bit amused. As Connor cheers both his younger self and his uncle on, one of his ghosts wonders if he is getting the point at all. But as Connor moves from the past into the present into the future, the bleak reality of his anti-love lifestyle becomes harder and harder to ignore. When the Ghost of Girlfriends Present appears, she is none other than his assistant, the only stable woman in his life since he left Jenny alone many years before. While Paul still tries to remember Connor for the loving older brother who basically raised him, Connor's increasing threat to his upcoming marriage make the effort near impossible. Jump to a future in which Connor sees the effects a loveless life has on both him and others he really does love, and as the saying goes, Connor only recognizes how real and valuable love is when he sees what life is like without it. Cue an abrupt turnaround in which Connor's anti-love tirades are replaced with speeches about how rare and valuable love is, how pain beats regret any day of the week, and how power isn't happiness, and the journey is pretty much complete.

Continue: 1 2