"Morning Glory" is as fresh as new laundry, or Rachel McAdams, but there's something wrong with it, too, and what's wrong is in the performances. Roger Michell directs it as though it were an uproarious comedy, but the laughs are light, and the story's real appeal lies in its behind-the-scenes look at the manners and politics of morning television. It's a portrait of a young woman and her world, but both are undercut by one-note, heavy-handed comic acting.
It's odd. Michell knows how to control tone and he knows actors. Yet, he either allowed or encouraged Harrison Ford to act as though mumbling through a coma. And he either allowed or encouraged McAdams in the opposite extreme, to play virtually every scene bouncing off walls and talking nonstop.
This is too bad, because there's more than a kernel of truth to what McAdams does here, even if it's obscured by mannerism and overplaying. McAdams, as Becky, is an ambitious career monster but in the nicest way. There are such people: likable and engaging and basically nice, but so focused on external achievement that the rest of life has no meaning for her. McAdams has fire in her eyes. She makes Becky's ambition, intelligence and drive easy to believe.
Likewise, her ruthlessness. A low-level TV operative who becomes the executive producer of a struggling morning show, young Becky turns around and fires a worthless anchorman 20 minutes into her first day on the job. We look at McAdams and know: Yes, she would do that. But the motor-mouthed stuff, the super-energized playing - that seems more like an actress' first draft at a character.
The problem in `Morning Glory' is systemic, and it's apparent from an early scene, in which Becky meets the show's longtime anchorwoman (Diane Keaton). Keaton flails and rails, trying to drive home nonexistent laughs. But, ultimately, Keaton takes control of her performance, holds back and locates her character in a quieter and more real place.
The movie's big relationship is between McAdams and Ford, who plays a former network anchor forced to do the morning show because of a clause in his contract. And so he does it, talking in a monotone and never taking the scowl off his face.
So, McAdams plays her role as though she's drunk two pots of coffee, and Ford plays it as though he's consumed eight pints of embalming fluid. Consequently, it becomes a matter of indifference whether their characters ever reach an understanding.
And yet … the whole atmosphere of `Morning Glory' is rather pleasant. It's interesting to lurk behind the scenes of a morning show, to get an idea of what an executive producer does and how segments come about.
`Morning Glory' isn't `Broadcast News.' It never could have been "Broadcast News," though we'll never know how close it could have come. But there are worse things than to linger in this world.
'Morning Glory'
Our grade: C
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Running Time: 110 min
MPAA rating: PG-13
Release Date: Nov 10, 2010
About the Author
Keep Reading
The Latest
Featured
