by Roger Bourke White Jr., copyright Nov 2010
Morning Glory is the story of a hyperkinetic young lady saving a morning TV program from cancellation. I found this story unsettling on many levels.
Morning Glory is the story of a young lady saving a failing morning TV program. The story follows a pretty standard formula:
o set up the problem, show us who's going to solve it
o show some people in a dysfunctional situation who will be saved by the protagonist and by the end become functional in a happy family feeling situation
o have a crisis, have a successful resolution
o put in a romance side story
o These days, stage this story with a New York City background
What I found most disturbing about this movie was how hyperkinetic the Rachel McAdams character, Becky Fuller, was. She was both as hyperkinetic as any protagonist I've seen, and in this movie it was her hyperkinesis which was saving the day. Whew! If this is professional aspiration in the 2010's, US culture is "cruisin for a bruisin". (Disclosure: Yeah, I'm an older guy. I can't do this hyperkinesis thing.)
Here are some other problems I noted in the story:
o The Harrison Ford character, Mike Pomeroy, is portrayed as a grumpy old man with a lot of laurels, and he's brought in to save the day based on those laurels. But, we viewers just hear about those laurels, we never see them. And through most of the movie he's dead weight. His one save-the-day newsbreak late in the movie doesn't impress me, nor does his getting-with-the-program cooking scene at the end. I keep thinking, "If he's not contributing to bailing out this sinking boat, why does Becky Fuller keep him around?" The answer is emotion: she respected him as a young TV viewer. But given the crisis she is facing and her snap decision nature, it's a weak answer.
o Fuller solves problems with snap decisions, and that is one of her virtues. Another is total dedication to her job, and finally, the hyperkinesis mentioned earlier. This comes out as a pretty spooky combination in my eyes. Worse, the position she's hired into seems to be structured perfectly for this combination. If she can't succeed, she will be replaced with someone who is even more so.
o Pomeroy is constantly whining that he wants to do serious news. But I see his one example, being at the bust of a corrupt politician, as a better example of clever news, not serious news. I was not impressed. And at the end of the movie, I still didn't see how his getting with the program was going to save the show.
So, my feeling by the end was this was a movie about hyperkinesis and total dedication saving the day. It might have worked for me when I was twenty, but nowadays I find it tiring to watch.
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