Morning Glory (2010) Directed by Roger Michell. With Rachel McAdams, Harrison Ford, Diane Keaton, Patrick Wilson and Jeff Goldblum.
Co-produced by J.J Abrams and released under the umbrella of his production company Bad Robot, this amiably light comedy has curiously large Hollywood credentials to its name. Directed by Roger Michell, and with a full-sugar-performance from Rachel McAdams as an underdog producer out to save a flagging breakfast TV show from falling ratings, Morning Glory hops, skips but doesn’t quite jump through it’s 20mins-too-long running time.
The plot is as formulaic as they get, as is for the most part, the general tone. All the standard ‘rom-com’ ingredients are here; regular intervals of pop songs, pumped out at full volume while beautiful people run through lovingly shot Manhattan exteriors. In the lead role, Rachel McAdams embodies the too perfect Tinseltown twenty-something. It’s a performance that confusingly skirts around the edges of both irritating and endearing and in truth, the writing doesn’t give us enough real adversity to make us want to root for her.
Saving the day, as cantankerous news anchor, Mike Pomeroy, Harrison Ford growls and grunts his way through a performance that has all the hallmarks of an actor/character that doesn’t believe he belongs in the piece. It’s great casting and it gives the film a whole other life outside of the tribulations of McAdams’ work-romantic-life-balance. Going toe-to-toe with Ford, and adding more satisfying bite is Diane Keaton’s spiky Colleen Peck, a similarly dis-satisfied presenter whose ego battles with Ford provide the films best moments. Indeed, once we’re introduced to their characters, it’s hard not to wish the film was just about them.
In the end, despite the significant backing, Morning Glory is little more than a footnote of a newsroom comedy. I can’t live in the same sentence as 1987’s Broadcast News, but it’s good fun when Ford is snarling his way around the set – yet all too forgettable when he’s not. 3/5
Gareth Rhodes Film Reviews 