Dir. Roger Michell, US, 2010, 107 mins
Cast: Rachel McAdams, Harrison Ford, Diane Keaton, Patrick Wilson, Jeff Goldblum
Review by Dee Pilgrim
The love lives of young single career women working in the media have provided rich fodder for both TV series and movies in the past. Here director Michell adds comedy to the romantic mix, creating a light and breezy movie that totally wastes the talents of two great actors.
Becky (McAdams) is a TV producer desperately looking for a job and finally lands one that nobody else wants – producing ‘Daybreak’ an ailing morning news and chat show, which hardly anyone watches. What her boss (Goldblum) wants her to do is turn its fortunes around and she hits on the idea of pairing the existing anchorwoman, Colleen Peck (Keaton) with seasoned hard news journalist Mike Pomeroy (Ford).
Pomeroy takes the job because he needs the money but he believes morning TV with its no news news stories is beneath him and soon his snide comments and back-biting with Peck are getting noticed. Becky believes her career is on the line and tries everything she knows to persuade Pomeroy to play fair. Meanwhile early mornings and late nights devoted to work are jeopardising her blossoming romance with Adam ( Wilson ).
Although McAdams is wholesomely lovely and throws herself into the role with enthusiasm she can’t really carry the whole movie by herself. Yet she has to because the characters of both Pomeroy and Peck are so under-written as to become background noise, while Adam is merely a romantic tool and never becomes a real character. Ford has a few good, sharp one-liners – “half the people who watch your show have lost their remote” he tells Becky – but he isn’t used enough, while Keaton is criminally ignored for most of the movie, being left merely to simper at the TV cameras whenever we do see her. Had the war of words between the two anchors been beefed up, a much better film would have emerged with real bite and pith. Other films in the ‘movies about TV’ genre such as Broadcast News play up the rivalry, politics, back-biting and ego inherent in television and crackle with wit, whereas this one rather whimpers.
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