Morning Glory

Morning Glory

Director           Roger Michel

Cast                 Rachel McAdams, Harrison Ford, Diane Keaton, Patrick Wilson, Jeff Goldblum, John Pankow

Year                2011

Genre              RomCom

Becky Fuller (Rachel McAdams) is a hard working woman.  Hard working to the extent that she always talks about work even on dates.  She is not a workaholic.  Just a little too involved with work.  So it is not surprising that after a couple of dates at best, the future prospect loses her phone number. It is therefore also no surprise that her favourite activity seems to be banging her head against the wall out of frustration – not just related to her personal life but also to her work life which is not the easiest in the world.  She is the Producer of an early morning show based out of New Jersey and her work begins at 1:30 am for a show that is slotted between 6 and 8 in the morning.  All seems to be going well and the rumour is rife that she is going to be promoted to Executive Producer for the show.  Therefore when HR calls her to discuss something she is all thrilled and dressed up in a red T shirt with the words “I Accept” she goes upstairs in anticipation – only to be slapped square across the face with the words, “I have to let you go”.  Becky is not just taken aback but shocked out of her wits.  But the enthusiasm in her doesn’t allow her to take this as a set back and she quickly dives into the process of searching for a new job in her own desperate comical manner. 

Her efforts finally get her an audience with Jerry Barnes (Jeff Goldblum) from another TV station called IBS, based in New York. She promptly gets to the interview and tries her best to convince Barnes that she can make a huge difference to “Day Break”- the daily morning programme which is terribly low on rankings and is anything but entertaining.  But her desperation for the role doesn’t seem sufficient to get her a job.  Her endearing enthusiasm, however does the trick and Barnes takes a huge risk by offering her the role of Executive Producer for the show at a much lower salary that she was drawing before.  After a bit of struggle, Becky makes her intentions quite clear about shaking up the system when she fire the co-host of the programme who is a sexist pig to say the least.  An act that goes well with the team but puts a challenge for Becky who now has to find a new co-host to Colleen Peck (Diane Keaton).  A few debates later she zeroes in on taking the risk with the legendary Mike Pommery (Harrison Ford) who is on a 2 year contract with IBS but currently out of a slot and is bound by contract with IBS to do what is required.

Morning Glory is a hugely predictable RomCom but is entertaining nevertheless. I am quickly beginning to believe that Rachel McAdams has a lot of talent and is definitely waiting for her really big break that will get her a shot to ultimate glory in Hollywood.  Its been nearly 10 years that she started acting and hopefully she will make it big sooner than later.  The bit of overacting that she has done in her role of Becky Fuller makes it even more, for lack of any other word, cute. Diane Keaton is fabulous as ever and so is Harrison Ford in his portrayal of the crabby, high on self respect, out of work legendary journalist.  Roger Michel continues with the compact narration that he has displayed in previous attempts at direction with Notting Hill and Changing Lanes to name a couple.  There are times when he just about goes off track but is quick to correct himself and ensure that there there is not much damage done.  As mentioned earlier, Morning Glory turns out to be an entertaining Chick Flick or RomCom or whatever else you may want to call it.  I give it a 6 on 10.  Worth a watch on a lazy Sunday afternoon.  You will not feel crappy when you walk out of the movie.