Matthew McConaughey has always been a great actor, that much as been clear since he first captured mainstream attention for his lead performance in 1996 John Grisham adaptation A Time to Kill, but it also wouldn’t be unfair to suggest that he took it a little too easy for the better part of a decade.
The 2000s saw the star settle comfortably into a groove as the handsome, charming and regularly shirtless face of the rom-com genre. The Wedding Planner, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Failure to Launch, Fool’s Gold and Ghosts of Girlfriends Past all arrived with the space of eight years, but repetitiveness and formula inevitably began to set in.
The latter has been added to Netflix as of today, even though the festive season is officially over and we’re into 2022. A saccharine spin on A Christmas Carol, McConaughey plays a celebrity photographer with no interest in settling down or giving up his hedonistic lifestyle.
However, the night before his brother’s wedding he receives visits from the spirits of his former flames, taking him on a journey through his past, present and potential future. McConaughey and co-star Jennifer Garner could churn out this kind of frothy dreck in their sleep, and that’s pretty much what they do, but we’ll be interested to see if Ghosts of Girlfriends Past can find a new audience on Netflix now the decorations are being put back into storage.
