MORNING GLORY (2010)

MORNING GLORY is a light-hearted, yet engaging, comedy that stars Rachel McAdams as Becky, a young television producer. Becky is given the unenviable task of revitalizing a failing, morning talk show program and reigning in the massive egos of the show’s aging co-anchors.

When Becky (Rachel McAdams) is fired from her producer job at a New Jersey morning talk show due to budget cuts, the spirited, work-obsessed, young TV exec wastes no time in sending out her resume to every major morning news program in the country. She quickly lands a job as executive producer of DAYBREAK, a New York morning talk show that is continually in fourth place behind leading morning programs such as THE TODAY SHOW.

However, she quickly learns why the executive producer job became available. The staff is in disarray and the on-air talent morale is incredibly low, mainly because of the two co-hosts: Colleen Peck (Diane Keaton), an embittered, aging beauty queen, and Paul McVee (Ty Burrell), a perverted man who would rather talk about pornography and foot fetishes than report the news. So, Becky quickly overhauls the show, starting by firing Paul.

With her acerbic boss, network head Jerry Barnes (Jeff Goldblum) breathing down her neck, Becky must bring up the ratings of DAYBREAK in six weeks or the show will be cancelled. In her search for a new co-anchor to share the desk with Colleen, Becky finds a contractual loophole through which she can hire an unwilling co-anchor, Mike Pomeroy (Harrison Ford). Mike is an arrogant reporter who feels that morning talk shows are beneath his classical-news-pedigree. However, Mike must fulfill his contractual obligations or else he will lose his multi-million dollar holding agreement with the network.

Now, Becky must balance struggling show ratings, answering to her boss, a newly developing love affair, all while reining in Colleen and Mike’s out-of-control egos, in order to save her job.

MORNING GLORY is surprisingly funny, but it is definitely intended for mature audiences. The all-star cast is headed by Rachel McAdams, who does a tremendous job capturing Becky’s nervous, spunky energy while maintaining a high-spirited confidence. Harrison Ford, minus his monotonous and grovel-filled dialogue delivery, is also very funny as the curmudgeonly Mike Pomeroy. The movie is certainly not deep, but it is enjoyable and has touching moments of warmth.

Sadly, though, this feel-good comedy is marred by an abundance of sexual references, including implied fornication in several scenes as well as crude dialogue and Paul McVee’s deviant behavior. It also contains too much foul language (34 obscenities and 18 profanities) as well as a mostly mixed pagan worldview. The movie is funny, but even mature, media-wise audiences should take extreme caution with MORNING GLORY.