Starring: Rachel McAdams, Harrison Ford, Diane Keaton, Patrick Wilson, Matt Malloy, John Pankow, Ty Burrell, and Jeff Goldblum
Directed By: Roger Michell
Written By: Aline Brosh McKenna
Produced By: J.J. Abrams and Bryan Burk
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Rating: PG-13, for some sexual content including dialogue, language and brief drug references.
Running Time: Approximately 110 minutes
Website: morningglorymovie.com
Budget: $50 million
Genre: Comedy
Release Date: November 10, 2010
A good workplace comedy is as hard to come by nowadays as is a good romantic comedy. So here’s giving thanks to Morning Glory for almost being both.
Nancy Meyers (Something’s Gotta Give, The Holiday, It’s Complicated) and Nora Ephron (Sleepless in Seattle, You’ve Got Mail, Bewitched), among other contemporary filmmakers, are responsible for the emergence of an interesting trend: film characters who lead rather privileged lives but rarely, if ever, go to work. Sure, it’s often stated what they do for a living but they are rarely shown actually doing it. In the case of Morning Glory, however, the three main characters are head over heels in love with their respective careers. It’s when the prospect of romance enters the picture that their lives get amusingly complicated.
Becky Fuller (Rachel McAdams) is a loquacious, workaholic TV producer from New Jersey who is hired by a blunt network chief (Jeff Goldblum) to increase the viewership for “Daybreak,” a perpetually low-rated NYC-based morning talk show. Becky, who was recently let go from her old producing job on a similar local morning news show, gets more than she bargains for when she has to contend with the demands and antics of long-suffering female anchor Colleen Peck (Diane Keaton) and her most recent male co-host, played by “Modern Family” star Ty Burrell.
Widely thought of as yet another executive producer in a long line of former executive producers that tried and failed to do anything of relevance with the show, Becky cautiously wields her authority almost as instinctively as she wields her Blackberry. And she actually starts to make some much-needed improvements, namely bringing on respected newsman Mike Pomeroy (Harrison Ford) to be the new male anchor, completely against his will, at least initially.
Mike and Colleen take the art of bickering to new heights, both on-air and off. Meanwhile, old-school Mike takes a shine to new-school Becky, in whom he sees a lot of himself. Their strictly platonic romance – as it were – is far more engaging than the budding romantic relationship between Becky and a golden boy producer (Patrick Wilson) who works at the network on another program and considers Mike one of the “three worst people in the world.”
Directed by Roger Michell (Notting Hill and Changing Lanes) and written by Aline Brosh McKenna (The Devil Wears Prada), Morning Glory could very well be the film that finally propels McAdams into the big leagues. Her Becky is like the equally neurotic though less assured kid sister one could imagine Holly Hunter’s Broadcast News character might have. Instead of periodically throwing crying fits in private to relieve stress like her cinematic big sister did, Becky bangs her head against the wall (and the occasional fixture) in moments of exasperation.
McAdams’ performance is akin to Julia Roberts’ work in Pretty Woman, Sandra Bullock’s in Speed and Renee Zellweger’s in Jerry Maguire, which is to say that a star is born, especially if Morning Glory proves to have legs at the box office. She’s ideally matched with Ford (who really should do more comedy) as her cantankerous mentor, who’s every bit as good here as he was in 1988’s Working Girl. McAdams’ Family Stone co-star Keaton judiciously fleshes out an underwritten character that could have easily been marginalized.
Morning Glory is no Broadcast News, but it’s no 27 Dresses (which Brosh McKenna also wrote) either. Thank God for that.
Grade: 3.5 stars
