There’s a lot of genuine pleasantness in Roger Michell’s Morning Glory: cheerful performances, bright smiles, airy optimism, and a light, breezy tone. It’s nice, sometimes, to see a film where the stakes are low and the sugary surface can wash over you. But this wasn’t quite the movie I wanted to see: the sugar takes over, and the subject, which is prime for dissection, heavy satire, or even irreverent humor, is only given a cursory examination.
Through no fault of its own, this film – a light comedy centered on the inner workings of a network morning news show akin to Good Morning, America – has been and will be endlessly compared to Sidney Lumet’s Network and James L. Brooks’ Broadcast News, the two indisputable classics in the TV news genre. No one seems to remember half-decent fare like Switching Channels, and I fear a similar fate awaits Morning Glory.
If Network and Broadcast News are the respectable, significant Edward R. Murrow programs, then Morning Glory is the cutesy morning news show. Which it might as well be: the movie and its heroine Becky Fuller (Rachel McAdams), profess their love for the morning news throughout.
Becky has just been fired from her job as morning news producer at a small New Jersey station; her mother (Patti D’Arbanville) attempts to console her, unable to fully comprehend Becky’s ambition for (so strangely specifically) the morning news. We’re in the same position as the mother. Is this really something people aspire to? Should it be encouraged?
But Becky gets a call from IBS honcho Jerry Barnes (Jeff Goldblum); IBS is a fictional fourth major network, and Daybreak is their failing morning news show, in fourth place in the ratings behind Today and Good Morning, America. Becky somehow wins a producing job on Daybreak, a show headlined by always-smiling anchor Colleen Peck (Diane Keaton); her first order of business is to get rid of Colleen’s creepy co-anchor, and replace him with grizzled, Dan Rather-esque nightly news veteran Mike Pomeroy (Harrison Ford).
From the moment he hits the screen, Ford walks away with the movie; he’s a growling bulldog as Pomeroy, always ready to pounce, every acid-tongued remark perfectly phrased and whispered, barely audibly, just under his breath. Most importantly, his character finally gives Morning Glory a rooting interest: here’s a respectable reporter and anchor who has covered important events the world over, forced to participate in the farce that is this morning “news” program.
Unfortunately, while the script by Aline Brosh McKenna (27 Dresses, The Devil Wears Prada) acknowledges Pomeroy’s plight, it ultimately sides with Becky; the dumbing-down of our news and our culture, you see, is a good thing.
This is the film’s one big failing: by dredging up the ‘news vs. entertainment’ angle, we expect a debate (serious, ironic, irreverent – something) that never takes place, the resolution instead dictated generic formula. Apparently, TV has turned us all into idiots, as Paddy Chayefsky predicted in Network; we’re no longer expected to confront complex issues, but shut up and smile.
Director Michell had previously directed complex, challenging work like Enduring Love, Venus, The Mother, and the underrated Sam Jackson-Ben Affleck thriller Changing Lanes; before those films, he also helmed the Julia Roberts-Hugh Grant rom-com Notting Hill. This film is polished and clean, but the antithesis of challenging work – it’s easy, generic, and conventional, even more so than Notting Hill.
For the undemanding viewer, Morning Glory is light and fun: Ford is terrific, in his best role in at least a decade, and Keaton offers a glimpse of a similar resurgence – as Pomeroy’s bubbly co-anchor, she strikes the satiric perfect chord, and is as good as I can remember her in the last two decades. If you’re looking for anything more serious, however, look elsewhere.
