To paraphrase that great fictional newsman with integrity Lou Grant-"Rachel, you have spunk--I hate spunk." And so Morning Glory with an excellent and charming cast through sheer positive energy and little substance or wit elevates mindless entertainment over quality.
Rachel McAdams plays the effervescent Becky Fuller,a 28 year old Jersey girl compulsively motivated to succeed in the media world (much of the impetus coming from her incredibly unsupportive mother)who becomes the executive producer of a failing morning "news" show-most of the news being cooking with semi-celebrities,weather and eight part series on orgasms(presumably seven of the eight being the female orgasm).
Not to be underestimated, the cutsie McAdams legally blackmails the reluctant Peabody/Pulitzer Prize winning Mike Pomeroy(evoking Dan Rather/Mike Wallace)into joining her morning Fluff-fest. Harrison Ford gives a great performance of the now cynical and displaced Pomeroy who refuses to compromise his journalistic integrity both as a matter of professional principle, as well as Ego-having once saved Colin Powell's life in Bosnia,he fees that covering the Sauerkraut festival is beneath him. Ford's character carries the movie, and the movie shows some sparks of true humor when Ford interacts with his morning co-host played by the ever appealing Diane Keaton. The movie is almost worth watching just to see these two act together. Whatever "it" is, Keaton still has "IT" big time.
However, to the extent that there is any dramatic climax in this formula chick flick movie it comes when McAdams embraces, in head cheerleader style, full throttle pandering encourging youtube worthy humiliation of the hapless weatherman, Diane Keaton sumo wrestling and cornering that ole stick in the mud Harrison Ford(dubbed "the third worse person in the world") into giving the people what they want at the expense of his long developed professionalism. Guess who wins?
Much like its subject, Morning Glory revels in its shallowness while pretending to have substance and celebrates the defeat of integrity with a nod to Pomeroy's last stand that he will not have his colonoscopy nationally broadcasted despite McAdams' urging. Art imitates life here where viewers and voters are encouraged to savor unhealthy sweets and eschew thinking. It is a Mary Tyler Moore Show for the new millennium where the Lou Grants of the world are demonized and marginal and the Ted Baxters and Sue Ann Nivens run the show and control our collective interests.
Rachel McAdams plays the effervescent Becky Fuller,a 28 year old Jersey girl compulsively motivated to succeed in the media world (much of the impetus coming from her incredibly unsupportive mother)who becomes the executive producer of a failing morning "news" show-most of the news being cooking with semi-celebrities,weather and eight part series on orgasms(presumably seven of the eight being the female orgasm).
Not to be underestimated, the cutsie McAdams legally blackmails the reluctant Peabody/Pulitzer Prize winning Mike Pomeroy(evoking Dan Rather/Mike Wallace)into joining her morning Fluff-fest. Harrison Ford gives a great performance of the now cynical and displaced Pomeroy who refuses to compromise his journalistic integrity both as a matter of professional principle, as well as Ego-having once saved Colin Powell's life in Bosnia,he fees that covering the Sauerkraut festival is beneath him. Ford's character carries the movie, and the movie shows some sparks of true humor when Ford interacts with his morning co-host played by the ever appealing Diane Keaton. The movie is almost worth watching just to see these two act together. Whatever "it" is, Keaton still has "IT" big time.
However, to the extent that there is any dramatic climax in this formula chick flick movie it comes when McAdams embraces, in head cheerleader style, full throttle pandering encourging youtube worthy humiliation of the hapless weatherman, Diane Keaton sumo wrestling and cornering that ole stick in the mud Harrison Ford(dubbed "the third worse person in the world") into giving the people what they want at the expense of his long developed professionalism. Guess who wins?
Much like its subject, Morning Glory revels in its shallowness while pretending to have substance and celebrates the defeat of integrity with a nod to Pomeroy's last stand that he will not have his colonoscopy nationally broadcasted despite McAdams' urging. Art imitates life here where viewers and voters are encouraged to savor unhealthy sweets and eschew thinking. It is a Mary Tyler Moore Show for the new millennium where the Lou Grants of the world are demonized and marginal and the Ted Baxters and Sue Ann Nivens run the show and control our collective interests.