Ghosts of Girlfriends Past is a 2009 American romantic comedy film whose plot is based on Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Filmed in Boston, the movie stars Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner and Emma Stone. Ghosts of Girlfriends Past basically takes the plot of Dickens' familiar novel and reframes it into the story of an emotionally shallow ladies' man who is visited by the ghosts of girlfriends past, present, and future.
Connor Mead (McConaughey), a womanizing bachelor and high-profile photographer with a disdain for marriage, goes to the wedding of his younger brother. Connor soon encounters his former sweetheart, Jenny (Garner), and eventually manages to offend the majority of the guests with his views on romance. In the meantime, he destroys the wedding cake and seduces the bride's mother. All in all, Connor is a nightmare of a wedding guest.
After being kicked upside the head by the three ghosts, Connor finally wakes up to his shallowness and resolves to redeem himself before it is too late. He realizes how offensive he's been. Connor rushes to rescue the wedding that he undermined by intercepting the bride who has fled the wedding. Unfortunately, to do this Connor's had to knock out the bride's father who tried to protect his daughter. At this point, Connor delivers his apology:
Connor: I'm sorry about destroying your wedding cake, going to second base with your mother, knocking your dad unconscious right there, and basically breaking up your wedding. I'm sorry.
It's rare to get a movie apology that is so direct and specific. Most apologies, in the movies as well as in real life, are either indirect ("I'm sorry for anything I may have said that offended you") or unspecific ("I'm sorry about what happened"). Connor's apology takes direct responsibility for not one but four highly-specific offenses without attempting to explain, rationalize, or talk about how his good intentions went awry.
The apology, so direct, simple, and specific, is the only thing that causes the bride to listen to Connor's subsequent speech about fighting for intimacy, risking getting hurt, and refusing to run away from emotional attachment. Wonderful things can happen when we tell the impeccable truth about ourselves.
Good romantic comedies are harder and harder to find these days, but for the diehard romantic, it proves there's still some life left in the genre.