What’s the Story?

Morning Glory 

Cinema Nova, 07/01/2011

Movie #3 for 2011

Morning Glory is set in the egomaniacal faux-news world of morning television.  It’s apt, because as a film it’s about as dumbed down as breakfast television seems to be.

Becky (RACHEL McADAMS, The Notebook, The Time Traveller’s Wife) has just been fired (despite being realy really good at her job as a producer for Good Morning New Jersey) and her mum is giving her grief about her long-held dream of working for the Today show.  Desperate, she moves to the city to boost the ratings of the ailing DayBreak.  Her almost-first act as executive producer is to sack the male anchor.  Her almost-second act is to hire grumpy Mike (HARRISON FORD), the George Negus of television news journalism, as the replacement anchor although he is supremely inappropriate for the job.  But that’s okay, because Becky believes in him.  Along the way she also variously believes in the bitter female anchor Colleen (DIANE KEATON), her too-good-to-be-true love interest Adam (PATRICK WILSON, Little Children, Watchmen), her boss Jerry (JEFF GOLDBLUM) and her senior producer Lenny (JOHN PANKOW, Bride Wars, The Extra Man).  That’s a whole lot of rom-com belief flying around, but very little of anything else: despite the good cast, things fail to pop.

Although it’s a romantic comedy, the core relationship is a platonic one between Becky and Mike, her idol and now coworker.  It doesn’t quite work.  Though I can’t be sure that’s because of the odd plot or because the direction is a bit lackluster, the writing fairly ordinary or the performances gratingly over-energised and caricaturish.  Hard to say, really.

The Mothers-in-Law in the audience seem to like it (including my own), but I can’t really recommend it for the rest of us.