Don’t bother showering or changing out of your PJs. Pour a cup of coffee, whip up a frittata and park it in front of the TV. It doesn’t matter if you are a journalist or have the slightest idea about journalism, Morning Glory is a piece of work everyone should see.
Morning Glory captured my heart in more ways than Matthew McConaughey with his shirt off. An askew journalist, Becky Fuller (Rachel McAdams), who can’t put down her Blackberry for more than a second, finds herself in a crappy executive producer position with co-workers who can’t even seem to stand next to each other, let alone talk.
Fuller finds herself trying to settle the feud between co-anchors Mike Pomeroy (Harrison Ford) and Colleen Peck (Diane Keaton). She begs, pleads and bribes the co-anchors to get along just for the time they are on-air, but they have motives of their own.
Pomeroy takes no direction from anyone and won’t even look at a story with a “fluffy” topic. He wants hard hitting topics. His character is vital to this movie, and no one else can play his role. Ford captures the jerk aspect of a know-it-all anchor every morning news office has seen.
Peck wants nothing more than to have the show to herself. She believes she is more than capable to anchor the show solo. When Pomeroy comes into the picture she laughs at the thought of him even stepping into a studio again after being off air for so long.
Fuller has the quirky quips and awkwardness that an always-on-the-job producer would carry. Fuller’s character believes she can change the morning show, Day Break, for the better. She is the awkward but lovable character we all want to be.
When Pomeroy gets a whiff of a good, hard-hitting news story he tells Fuller he is covering a sauerkraut festival. Fuller promptly decides to tag along to see this transformation for herself. Fuller quickly realizes she was duped when the camera truck missed the exit for the festival and heads for the mayor’s house. Pomeroy impresses Fuller with his story and Fuller feels a bond growing between them. The classic 5-minute montage.
Pomeroy rapidly extinguishes the bond by going back to his old objective ways.
Fuller takes these challenges she faces and turns them into opportunities to better not just herself, but the entire staff; what any leader strives to do.
Yes, I’m an aspiring journalist, and yes, this movie affected me a great deal, but you don’t have to always relate fully to the characters to be affected. I will never become a princess and take over a country like Anne Hathaway did in The Princess Diaries, but I learned from the movie that you don’t give up and you never back away from a challenge. Morning Glory has the same effect.
In the end, Fuller gets the guy, the perfect job and the respect she has wanted for years. While I dislike perfect endings because not everything ends perfectly in life, this movie deserved a nice ending.
For The Kirkwood Call, this is Cassie Kibens, signing off. Goodbye.
