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Morning Glory
Stars: Rachel McAdams, Harrison Ford, Diane Keaton, Patrick Wilson, Jeff Goldblum, John Pankow, Patti D'Arbanville, Reed Birney
Director: Roger Michell
Thank goodness that this story of a dynamic, if slightly daffy morning-TV producer (McAdams) wakes up in the last half-hour, for the preceding 80 minutes are pretty stodgy stuff. But it's worth waiting for the tail-end pieces, which are great fun.
Fired (though not for inefficiency) from her job as producer of a small-scale morning TV programme, Becky (McAdams) eventually lands a similar position with New York's lowest-rated early show Daybreak. She meets the co-anchor, Colleen (Keaton), who tells her about her predecessors. 'If they're stupid, they get fired, if they're smart, they quit.'
Becky, however, isn't about to do either - or we wouldn't have a film. She fires Colleen's preening co-host, and hires grouchy ex-ace newsman Mike (Ford), who's under contract to the studio, but has been given nothing to do.
He hates the idea of hosting Daybreak - 'Half the people who watch your show have lost their remote and the other half are waiting for the nurse to turn them over' - and only morosely assumes the co-anchor's chair, immediately feuding with Colleen.
Faces with closure by her frazzled boss (Goldblum), Becky is determined to revitalise the show, sending the weatherman and later Colleen on a series of alternately ridiculous and hazardous assignments, and even allowing Mike the occasional news scoop.
Of course, there's a love interest, played by predictably dull fourth-billed Wilson, but it's Keaton rather than McAdams (doing a good impersonation of a Catherine wheel) who steals what honours are going, with her dry, flyaway humour.
David Quinlan
USA 2010. UK Distributor: Paramount . Colour by deluxe.
108 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 12A.
Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 0, Violence/Horror 0, Drugs 0, Swearing 1.
Review date: 17 Jan 2011