Morning Glory (Rachel McAdams, Harrison Ford, Diane Keaton, Jeff Goldblum) – If ever there was a harmless comedy, Morning Glory is it. It’s a throwback to the comedies of a bygone era when Meg Ryan, Tom Hanks, Bill Crystal, Sandra Bullock, and their contemporaries specialized in chick flicks and romantic comedies that didn’t focus on drugs and sex. Rachel McAdams stars as Becky, the new executive producer of the last-place national morning TV show. The show features perky diva Colleen Peck (Diane Keaton in Katie Couric mode) and stupid, smarmy and obnoxious Paul McVee (Ty Burrell of Modern Family). Becky’s first move is to fire Paul as anchor and install one of her idols, hard news guy Mike Pomeroy (Harrison Ford). Pomeroy’s long and distinguished career peaked long ago and the network pays him to do essentially nothing. So Becky taps him to be her new anchor despite his reputation for being “the third worst person in the world,” according to his previous producer.
It is about here that every single human in the audience knows the end of the movie, which comes an hour later. The morning show is truly horrible; the new anchor team doesn’t click at all; Pomeroy refuses to do any of those stupid cooking segments that plague daytime TV; and the network [personified by executive Jerry Barnes (Jeff Goldblum)] has threatened to cancel the show. Becky begs for more time to turn the ratings around. With nothing to lose, she unleashes her creative talent, mostly at the expense of the weatherman while trying to loosen up Pomeroy. There are a few worthwhile gags that’ll keep you smiling. Because this is a formula comedy, the script has to give you a moment of tension, which comes as Becky is invited to interview with the Today show. As the movie winds down to its inevitable conclusion, you’ll just keep thinking about how cute McAdams is, how good Keaton still looks, and how Ford got paid a lot for not doing much. This is a carefree hour-and-a-half.