Review of Morning Glory (2010) by Adam S — 18 Dec 2014

It's unabashedly a chick flick, it's often derivative and cliched, and it's entirely predictable. But it also has a very charming and affable cast. Oh, what the heck, I had fun watching this film.

It's the film of a workaholic TV producer who loses her job at a local news station, and winds up working for the struggling national morning program, Daybreak. To attempt to bring up the ratings for the show, she brings in legendary newsman Mike Pomeroy, but there's a problem - Pomeroy is completely disinterested in the program and has no qualms with showing that to a national audience. Meanwhile, everyone tries to keep relationships going, because it's a chick flick.

It's a pretty dodgy plotline and the writing isn't exactly crash-hot, but it does feature a more than watchable cast that includes Rachel McAdams, Harrison Ford, Diane Keaton, Patrick Wilson, Jeff Goldblum and Ty Burrell. All of these actors know what they had to do to make this film fun, and they did it.

That said, it was a big pile of cliches stacked on top of each other, particularly the scenes between McAdams and Wilson, with the two veterans of rom-coms repeating the same old tropes again and again. But then Ford would come on, doing his "bored with everything" routine that he'd perfected on numerous appearances with David Letterman, and the entertainment value would spike once more.

Fun, but not essential. 3 stars.