re: matthew mcconaughey - transformation to a great actor?

He did a lot of those rom-coms prior to having a kid and getting married. After he had his kid and got married, I'm assuming he swore off the insane amount of tail throwing themselves at him and decided to actually focus on things other than drugs, sex, and making piles of money doing shitty movies. He decided to get back into what he was doing professionally and challenge himself doing that, rather than challenging himself to see how many hot extras and young starlets he could notch into his bedpost.

He has always been a fine actor. Great even. He was great in A Time to Kill, Amistad, U-571 and Frailty; good in Contact, EdTV, and We Are Marshall. I even enjoyed him in Sahara, though that was certainly a fun movie, rather than a real stretch for him as an actor. I think after doing Fool's Gold he had probably already signed on for Ghosts of Girlfriends Past and decided: "That's the last one." He had plenty of money, life had settled down for him, and he decided to reinvent his image. He's done a helluva job at it, that's for sure. I can't wait to see what he does next.