Share this
Twitter
Myspace
Digg
Del.icio.us
Reddit
Slashdot
Furl
Yahoo
Technorati
Newsvine
Facebook
Export PDF
Print
E-mail
TagsCanadian Sweetheart carries film accompanied by Harrison Ford, Diane Keaton and Jeff Goldblum
BY JOE TYRRELL
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
MOVIE REVIEW
The old news that Rachel McAdams is the princess of perkiness provides the tiny peg on which "Morning Glory" hangs it's sad tale of television.
You might have coffee perking, soil percing and lavish perks piling up right until the moment when your job moves to India, but you're still a piker at perkification compared to McAdams.
Many viewers seem to believe that Rachel's perkdom pre-eminence is purely natural. Coming from a land of happy white folks, the reasoning goes, McAdams is able to draw on Ontario's vastly attractive resources, it's underground perkifers.
But that understates how hard America's Canadian Sweetheart works at being adorable, never more so than in "Morning Glory." As Becky Fuller, the ambitious airhead at the center of this Paramount Pictures release, Rachel clocks a steady tic-tic-tic of mannerisms through every scene.
She's cute when she's banging her head against various walls. She's cute when she's striding purposefully, then reversing course purposefully. She's cute when her extra-excited delivery causes other characters to ask if she's about to sing. She's cute arching her eyebrows in alarm. She's cute hemming and hawing and interrupting herself with asides. She's cute checking the time and twitching in reaction.Becky may not be bearing the weight of the world, but she is bearing up under the world's whimsy. It's a good thing that McAdams is a strong actress, because in "Morning Glory," she also has to carry the movie.
SECOND OPINION:
Click here for Nancy Mandell's review of "Morning Glory"
That's surprising, because the script by former Bergen County resident Aline Brosh McKenna attracted some big-name talent. Director Roger Michell's credits include "Persuasion," "The Mother" and "Venus." On screen, little Rachel finds herself accompanied by Harrison Ford, Diane Keaton and Jeff Goldblum.
Although largely shot in New York, this J.J. Abrams production makes a few nods in the direction of New Jersey. As it opens, Becky is expecting a promotion at her pre-dawn job on "Good Morning, New Jersey," identified as being on "Channel 9." (Note to WWOR: take umbrage.)
Instead, she's fired. For a moment, "Morning Glory" flirts with reality, as Becky's Mom, played by Patti D'Arbanville, advises her that it is past time to give up the dream that has led her to this dead end.
Hey, Mom, lighten up, it's only a movie. After a minute's worth of on-screen rejection, Becky is in New York, interviewing for a position running a network's last-place morning show. In a bit of inspired casting, the self-involved network executive is played by Jeff Goldbaum, the sultan of smugness. The scene is a battle royal.
Becky doesn't learn she's gotten the job until she's in the plaza outside, which gives her a chance to exult Mary-Tyler-Moore-style — and scare a flock of pigeons. The visual pun is one of a number of decent jokes that McKenna scatters through the script, but it is also a reminder of better times.
On "Mary Tyler Moore" and it's offshoot "Lou Grant," Moore and Edward Asner played dedicated newspeople, doing their best even when surrounded by happy idiots. A few years later, the shows' creator James L. Brooks put some of the same dynamics on the big screen in "Broadcast News," chronicling the triumph of style over substance.
Flash-forward 25 years, and in place of Holly Hunter's hyper-driven, hyper-intelligent producer from "Broadcast News," we get Rachel McAdams as hyper-driven, hyper-idiotic Becky. To rescue her floundering show, Becky devises ways to make "news" more exciting — and exponentially stupider. Hey, it works for Fox.
A key subplot involves getting Mike Pomeroy, Ford's vain, curmudgeonly "real" newsman, to say the word "fluffy." It's not enough to surrender, you have to kiss the ring. Yes, through trickery, Ford's character briefly gets to cover a corruption story. Though presented off-hand here, it's of such magnitude that in reality, "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" might fight over it.
In the subsequent deeply serious moment, Mike gets to warn Becky against the consequences of ambition. What with her being a chick and all. Fortunately, she has a stud puppet at hand, Patrick Wilson of "Watchmen," as a producer whose job apparently consists of hanging out in a bar with friends.
Wilson fulfills the role's two requirements, being white and bland. Coincidentally, white was one of two factors in casting Keaton's part. She also has to be diva-esque.
For an actress, that may be more fun than Rachel McAdams' steady grind of keeping the globe perking. Although blessed with genetics that stopped her aging at 22, McAdams is a decade older. She might welcome a chance to be something other than "the girl" in a string of sappy, silly, superficial if occasionally commercially successful flicks.
Good news: McAdams is signed to forthcoming projects with Terrence Malick and Woody Allen. Meanwhile, "Morning Glory" displays Rachel like some rare mountain blossom, at the summit of perkiness.
During their debates over the future of the morning show, Becky tells Pomeroy, "The world has been debating news versus entertainment for years, and guess what, Mike? Your side lost."
Noted.
Of course, Hollywood used to be able to make intelligent comedies, even about the news. Guess what? Another loss.
Joe Tyrrell may be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
