Since Billy Wilder’s biting satire Sunset Boulevard slapped the hand of Hollywood, taking the mickey out of the entertainment industry has been a regular occurrence. Television hasn’t been immune with the backroom tears and tantrums rivalling that of Tinseltown’s titans. Whilst clichés abound in these tales, Morning Glory rehashes them with some degree of freshness. That its strange carry-ons reflect many of our local morning shows is a worry with only a remote’s ‘off’ button offering viewer’s any escape.
Becky Fuller (Rachel McAdams) is an executive producer of ailing morning programme Daybreak. Hosted by Colleen (Diane Keaton), she hires respected journalist Mike (Harrison Ford) as Colleen’s new co-anchor. Coming from a background in serious journalism, he becomes aghast at the attention grabbing stunts Becky resorts to in order to lift ratings. When he makes an unexpected move which causes a sensation, she discovers TV networks have no shame when it comes to climbing the ratings totem pole.
Despite not being hard enough towards the banality of breakfast TV, Morning Glory seemingly gives a fairly accurate depiction of the behind the scenes dramas involved. The egos and vain personalities are all here as expected, with the lead actors diving into their caricatures with enthusiastic gusto. It’s always a pleasure seeing Ford do something different from his serious roles, with his recalcitrant host defiantly resisting the tide of televisual inanity.
Roger Mitchell’s direction makes the comedy move fairly quickly even if some of it seems strained. He’s certainly no Wilder when it comes to savage observation, although he does have much to say about commercial TV’s current ethos in dumbing down to the lowest common denominator. The way serious news is discarded in favour of frivolous puff pieces is shown, with Mitchell providing some salient points on how great ideas shouldn’t need to suffocate under the weight of network interference.
Morning Glory offers some reasonable laughs although viewers who’ve seen Network and Soapdish may find proceedings familiar. Television’s search for ratings is never-ending although in its quest for dominance it’s their audience who has the real power in shaking it out of its stagnant ways.
Movie Review Rating 6 / 10
Movie Review by Patrick Moore
Morning Glory released in Australia on Thursday 06 January 2011.
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