by D Server

Created on: April 07, 2011   Last Updated: May 24, 2012

Rachel McAdams plays Becky Fuller, an attractive and ambitious if rather neurotic young woman who works in the television industry. She takes over a foundering morning show, Daybreak, which is likely based on the long-suffering CBS Morning Show, which, like Daybreak, has had low-ratings with many different anchors through many decades. Daybreak airs on the fictional “IBS” network (which sounds a lot like CBS.)

Becky is so obsessed with her work that, despite her obvious appeal and charm, she has virtually no personal life. The movie opens with her on an apparent blind date in which she is painfully awkward and easily distracted by her cell phone. She has let her social skills deteriorate to the point that she says, “I don’t know if a man is interested in me until he’s naked.” Later, she ends up in a romance, but is almost brought into it kicking and screaming. 

All of this makes for pleasurable viewing, thanks to Rachel McAdams’ fine performance. But Morning Glory does contain more than a few doubtful details. At the start of the movie, before Becky was hired by Daybreak, she is chastised by her mother for having a dream of working on The Today Show. She tells her it was a nice dream as a girl, but it has become embarrassing. Her mother’s criticism seems out of place, since Becky had a job as a producer of a morning television program and even if it was a local rather than a national show, that seems like quite a good position for someone who is still in her twenties. And though she was fired from that job, it was not because of anything she did wrong. And Becky quickly gets another job, this time on a national network, even if it is a low-rated show that no one admires or respects. 

Another part of Morning Glory which is hard to believe is Harrison Ford’s character, the supposed great journalist and professional Mike Pomeroy. But he has the type of personality-free demeanor which no prominent network newsman has possessed for many decades. Pomeroy treats everyone else with no respect and even contempt and abuse, except apparently those he considers his peers, like Morley Safer, Chris Matthews and Bob Schieffer, who are seen having drinks with him. And for someone who is supposedly the thoroughly professional newsman, Pomeroy acts completely unprofessional when he is forced to work on Daybreak, having no sense of responsibility for his work, his employers or his colleagues.

Of course this is a comedy, so some of these excesses are perhaps excusable for the good of the story. Also excusable is Pomeroy’s co-anchor Colleen, played by Diane Keaton. Other than a few funny moments, there is not a whole lot to Colleen’s character, as Keaton just seems to be along to add more star power to the movie. 

The more enjoyable part of the story is the romance between Becky and Adam Bennett, a producer working at the network on a magazine news show that seems like 60 Minutes or 20-20. This is the most fun part of the movie, with McAdams charming and very attractive yet very awkward in romantic matters. She tells Adam after their bad first date, “I stumbled and I bumbled because that’s what I do-and that’s what I’m doing right now.” Patrick Wilson is highly enjoyable as Adam, her boyfriend with the movie star looks. The relationship between the two is funny and romantic and makes Morning Glory enjoyable enough that its few dubious details don’t really matter.

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