I'm infatuated with Rachel McAdams.
Not sure what the first movie I saw her in was... probably THE NOTEBOOK, with Ryan Gosling. Doesn't really matter at this point - she consistently surprises me, both in the movies she chooses to be in, and the performances she gives. I'll watch anything with her in it, no matter what the plot of the movie might be.
It's a pity this one wasn't up to her usual standards.
Becky (played by Rachel) is clearly a workaholic, the kind of person whose life is defined by the job she has. The first scene we see her in is that of trying to have dinner with a guy while explaining the reason she's having it at perhaps four in the afternoon is because she works the graveyard shift to keep the morning show going at a particular network.
The date of course fails while we watch her answer her cell phone and fumble through awkward dialogue setting up the premise for the rest of what is, essentially, just an okay film.
She's let go from the first job, pleads for the second, and we get a wonderful albeit short intro from Jeff Goldblum who hires McAdams to run his morning show, and rescue it from oblivion, to which she accepts happily, so she can return to the routine of work-obsessed madness she's used to... and in the beginning, we're totally on-board.
She doesn't take crap from people... fires a guy in the first scene of her new job... and the crew is happy to have her as their commander in chief.
Until Diane Keaton and Harrison Ford start exchanging sparks. Then the supposed REAL movie begins.
It's clearly not a Ten, because I wasn't ever moved at any part of it, save a touching moment at the end of the film (no, I don't mean the credits). It's not a One, because I actually managed to watch the whole movie, and didn't want to kill myself at any point during it.
Not a Nine, because I wasn't truly surprised by anything, except perhaps the final fix of the plot to bring everything to fruition. If only the setup had been better planned out from the beginning, I might have been in support of such a sudden albeit predictable turnaround.
The movie wasn't broken, so it can't get a Two. There was potential here, but it kept an even keel throughout the motions, so it doesn't deserve my dreaded Three.
I wished, at several moments throughout, that it would become an Eight. It certainly had all the right people in all the right places to become one. It fell short simply because the writing didn't know when to pick the pace up and when to let it go. Reinforcing Harrison Ford's true character instead of listening to him whine through most of the plot probably would have fixed that.
Not a Four, because it was better than that. The production value alone, while not coherent, was at least enough to keep me from falling asleep while I watched it. I can't give it a Five either, because the sheer level of acting ability here was still enjoyable and worthwhile, even though nobody could figure out how to get the beats right.
And without a clear soundtrack that was memorable or a decent side-plot involving Rachel's character actually learning anything, I can't give this a Seven. Perhaps if Patrick Wilson as Rachel's love interest was more developed I could have at least thrown this movie more of a bone.
But it's a solid Six. The kind of movie you'd watch when you can't find anything else as you're flipping through the channels. Assuming of course you still HAVE pay channels in this new age of Streaming Services. Listening to Harrison Ford's character whine would have been fine if it hadn't lasted so long. And perhaps a little more friction between him and McAdams' character might have given more weight to this plot, instead of her basically begging the man to do the job he was hired for.
If you want a great movie with Rachel in it, I recently watched SPOTLIGHT. It was excellent.
Not sure what the first movie I saw her in was... probably THE NOTEBOOK, with Ryan Gosling. Doesn't really matter at this point - she consistently surprises me, both in the movies she chooses to be in, and the performances she gives. I'll watch anything with her in it, no matter what the plot of the movie might be.
It's a pity this one wasn't up to her usual standards.
Becky (played by Rachel) is clearly a workaholic, the kind of person whose life is defined by the job she has. The first scene we see her in is that of trying to have dinner with a guy while explaining the reason she's having it at perhaps four in the afternoon is because she works the graveyard shift to keep the morning show going at a particular network.
The date of course fails while we watch her answer her cell phone and fumble through awkward dialogue setting up the premise for the rest of what is, essentially, just an okay film.
She's let go from the first job, pleads for the second, and we get a wonderful albeit short intro from Jeff Goldblum who hires McAdams to run his morning show, and rescue it from oblivion, to which she accepts happily, so she can return to the routine of work-obsessed madness she's used to... and in the beginning, we're totally on-board.
She doesn't take crap from people... fires a guy in the first scene of her new job... and the crew is happy to have her as their commander in chief.
Until Diane Keaton and Harrison Ford start exchanging sparks. Then the supposed REAL movie begins.
It's clearly not a Ten, because I wasn't ever moved at any part of it, save a touching moment at the end of the film (no, I don't mean the credits). It's not a One, because I actually managed to watch the whole movie, and didn't want to kill myself at any point during it.
Not a Nine, because I wasn't truly surprised by anything, except perhaps the final fix of the plot to bring everything to fruition. If only the setup had been better planned out from the beginning, I might have been in support of such a sudden albeit predictable turnaround.
The movie wasn't broken, so it can't get a Two. There was potential here, but it kept an even keel throughout the motions, so it doesn't deserve my dreaded Three.
I wished, at several moments throughout, that it would become an Eight. It certainly had all the right people in all the right places to become one. It fell short simply because the writing didn't know when to pick the pace up and when to let it go. Reinforcing Harrison Ford's true character instead of listening to him whine through most of the plot probably would have fixed that.
Not a Four, because it was better than that. The production value alone, while not coherent, was at least enough to keep me from falling asleep while I watched it. I can't give it a Five either, because the sheer level of acting ability here was still enjoyable and worthwhile, even though nobody could figure out how to get the beats right.
And without a clear soundtrack that was memorable or a decent side-plot involving Rachel's character actually learning anything, I can't give this a Seven. Perhaps if Patrick Wilson as Rachel's love interest was more developed I could have at least thrown this movie more of a bone.
But it's a solid Six. The kind of movie you'd watch when you can't find anything else as you're flipping through the channels. Assuming of course you still HAVE pay channels in this new age of Streaming Services. Listening to Harrison Ford's character whine would have been fine if it hadn't lasted so long. And perhaps a little more friction between him and McAdams' character might have given more weight to this plot, instead of her basically begging the man to do the job he was hired for.
If you want a great movie with Rachel in it, I recently watched SPOTLIGHT. It was excellent.