Film Review: ‘Morning Glory,’ broadcast morning news at its grouchiest

Jordan Wilson

Staff Writer

In almost every morning news anchor’s delivery, it’s easy to detect a slightly sarcastic tone: They have to appear plucky and bounce banter back and forth with the co-anchor, while always maintaining energy and interest about whatever news is being discussed – most of which tends to be terribly uninteresting, i.e. cooking or outdoor gardening tips.

Eventually, you would think that one of these anchors would snap and throw their coffee cup straight at the camera.

After Becky Fuller (Rachel McAdams) is fired from her job as a morning news producer, she desperately clings to the first job offer she receives.  The job: executive producer at “Daybreak,” the nation’s lowest-rated morning news show.

As her boss Jerry Barnes (Jeff Goldblum) tells her, the position is underpaid, the program is pure garbage and the studio is underfinanced to the point where it can’t even afford functional doorknobs.

She takes the job and immediately clashes with the station’s Emmy award-winning journalist/curmudgeon, Mike Pomeroy (Harrison Ford). Pomeroy is living on the $6 million contract he signed with the station, and because he never pitches a story light enough to air, he spends most of his time hunting and grimacing.

Becky fires a sleazy co-anchor (Ty Burrell) on her first day, and ends up having to convince Pomeroy to replace him and co-anchor a morning show for the first time in his long, accomplished career. He also has to work with co-anchor Colleen Peck (Diane Keaton), a morning anchor who is smiling on the outside, but on the inside, freaking out.

“Morning Glory” explores, to some extent, the battle going on today between hard news and junk news, and the unfortunate possibility that the former is steadily losing the attention spans of so many viewers. It is also a very entertaining and breezy film that is elevated by some terrific performances from McAdams and Harrison.

McAdams is a firecracker in this movie. She plays Becky as a jumpy, intelligent workaholic who constantly oversaturates her relationships with talk about her job, leaving her life nearly nonexistent. McAdams’ performance is so energized that it uplifts what could have been a dull experience to something that is actually worth a look.

Ford creates a grouch whose gravelly voice and sour demeanor evoke Walt Kowalski, Clint Eastwood’s character in his own “Gran Torino.” Like Kowalski, Pomeroy has experienced a hell of a lot in his field, and despite his 16 Emmys and countless other awards, he is now forced to regress back to the most basic of news formats. There are some big laughs involving the pre-news banter that he is asked to share with his co-anchor, and his utter refusal to broadcast the word “fluffy.”

Keaton, as usual, is full of life and good comic timing. Her character is filled with frustration and self-awareness, and while she may be berating and arguing with her stubborn co-anchor moments before show time, when that camera starts rolling, she puts on a happy face – she has to; it’s part of the job.

The screenplay by Aline Brosh McKenna (“The Devil Wears Prada” and “27 Dresses”) is very well-developed. Discussions of the curve that news is taking toward entertainment over information are very interesting, and McKenna all the while keeps things light-hearted and cheerful without losing its satirical edge.

Director Roger Michell handles the material very nicely, and although the story is somewhat derivative and familiar, it chooses not to insult the intelligence of the audience, but rather plays out at a fairly rhythmic pace, with a surprisingly moving climax that feels authentic enough and well earned. Grade: C+