REVIEW: Morning Glory [2010]

Rating: PG-13 | Runtime: 107 minutes
Release Date: November 10th, 2010 (USA)
Studio: Paramount Pictures
Director(s): Roger Michell
Writer(s): Aline Brosh McKenna

The anchors of the show are, ah, difficult and … semi-talented.

Director Roger Michell is a sleeper. Do you recognize his name? It rang a bell with me, but I couldn’t quite place where. His latest Morning Glory is similarly familiar. Since all the promotional material used producer J.J. Abrams and his Bad Robot shingle as selling points, the director’s identity is left far in the distance. Also, if you ask five people on the street who’ve heard of the film but haven’t seen it, four will probably tell you it’s a romantic comedy. They’d be wrong.

That’s not to say there isn’t a romantic aspect to the story. It’s just not the most important aspect of the whole. The real impetus behind its plot is to watch as a fledging product is turned around to become something the public can appreciate and enjoy. And its steward is an unlikely young woman who makes up for her lack of experience by having plenty of moxie. This is an underdog tale from start to finish that has the humor and heart to sustain it.

Becky Fuller (Rachel McAdams) is a bright young producer who’s aspired to take over NBC’s “Today” since the age of eight. Working on a local New Jersey show that starts at 4am due to it having marginally better monetization potential than infomercials, she’s been waiting for any sort of promotion to prove her worth. So, it’s no surprise that she’s introduced via a disastrous blind date riddled with Blackberry ringing, caffeinated ramblings, and a palpable awkwardness. It’s fun for us to watch and appreciate her tenacity.

When a supposed sure-thing promotion turns into her getting laid off, that bulldog mentality of never giving up lands her in the studios of IBS with an opportunity to operate a show against her dream job in the ratings game. (Is it supposed to be funny that a morning show, whose new surly host suggests advertising it as something to “watch before your morning dump,” is on a station with the same call letters as Irritable Bowel Syndrome?)

There’s a reason Daybreak is in last place behind “Today”, “Good Morning America”, and “whatever it is CBS has,” though—the show is in shambles. Its star anchor Colleen (Diane Keaton) is a bitter woman who’s watched imbeciles get fired, savants go to greener pastures, and herself stay in the exact same place. Its co-anchor is probably the most vain man alive (a fantastic turn from Ty Burrell). And the team behind the scenes obviously haven’t experienced any real leadership steering the ship for quite some time.

Well, that all changes when Becky arrives with her insane capacity to always be on the ball. Respect is cultivated and her courage achieves opportunities for some real strides … that end up backfiring. Hiring the renowned journalistic equivalent to a Rather or Cronkite in this fictional world (Harrison Ford’s Mike Pomeroy) appears shrewd, but it ultimately brings in a egomaniac who had been leeching a paycheck for six months. Her boss’s (Jeff Goldblum) almost nonexistent faith wanes further as cancellation looms. And a relationship with the ‘dreamy’ Patrick Wilson even finds a way to be a distraction in Becky’s mind.

But it’s exactly when the wheels start to fall off that Morning Glory gets good. The central crux doesn’t pertain to McAdams and Wilson’s chemistry or whether they cultivate a bond. It’s about whether the show will die. Sure, it’s not Broadcast News, but few things are. Think of this as a solid, poor man’s version of that contemporary masterpiece instead. Failure isn’t a blindside fist to the face like it is in that James L. Brooks film because we know it’s coming regardless of the characters being surprised.

That may seem like a minor difference, but it completely changes our viewpoint by almost guaranteeing a miraculous turnaround to save the day. And there are some hilarious moments prior to the clichés taking over so characters can experience thawed hearts without enough time to believe it. Ford has made his twilight years into a steady stream of curmudgeon success and his snide sarcasm is a bright spot that only magnifies once Keaton enters the game with her own biting banter … on air. Matt Malloy’s weatherman Ernie has a couple Albert Brooks-lite moments once the show goes into crisis mode and McAdams is the perfect mix of confidence, fear, sweetness, and force.

She has a natural charisma that begs us to wish for her success. We want her to get through the tough times, get over her neuroses, and live out her dreams. Her Becky is completely selfish in her personal life by dedicating every waking second to her job, but completely selfless when it comes to family at the same time. And by “family” I mean the kooks she shares an office with at five in the morning. She has the skill to do anything, but maybe the unlikely triumph of turning a laughing stock into something of merit is worth more than a big paycheck.

Whatever happens with Daybreak and its ego clash of Keaton and Ford is on her—good or bad. She never wavers in her faith that the trouble spots will somehow work their way out, though. The film therefore becomes a journey of that optimism trickling down to those around her. No one expects a left for dead loser to get up and make an impact and I didn’t think this film would stand out from the pack. Sometimes it’s good to be proven wrong.