Morning Glory

2/4

Starring: Rachel McAdams, Harrison Ford, Diane Keaton, Patrick Wilson, Jeff Goldblum

Rated PG-13 for Some Sexual Content including Dialogue, Language and Brief Drug References

Rarely has 100 minutes seemed so long.  When I was done watching "Morning Glory," I was surprised it had only taken up that amount of time.  I felt as if I had gotten done watching "Titanic" twice.

The problem with the film is easy to identify: the movie plays it safe (which is ironic for a movie about unconventional thinking).  That, and Harrison Ford uses the world's most annoying voice to play his character.
Becky Fuller (Rachel McAdams) is a hard-working executive producer for a small-time news show when she is fired due to cutbacks.  Then she gets a job at a failing morning show, but because of the egos involved, she ends up making it worse.  With the threat of cancellation, she pulls out all the  stops and what do you know?  People start tuning in again.

Rachel McAdams is great at playing energetic characters, and Becky fits right in.  She's like the Energizer bunny after drinking all the coffee at Starbucks: she's on hyper-drive, and she keeps going and going and going…That's all fine and dandy, but she's not given a good script.  Her co-star, Harrison Ford, is anything but great, however.  Ford is usually reliable, but he is trying to ape Christian Bale's Batman voice (what is it with actors who try to be dark and gritty in EVERY movie…when did movies stop being fun?).  Diane Keaton and Jeff Goldblum are good, but they are given almost nothing to do.

When the movie goes for humor, it works.  But the film rarely attempts it because director Roger Michell wants to spend time with the characters.  That's perfectly fine, but the characters are two dimensional at best, and even McAdams' boundless energy starts to wear thin after a while.  The dialogue is flat and the plot is minimal. Since there's nothing there, what are you left with?  A movie that tries to be a jack of a few trades and a master of none.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My Left Foot

 2/4 Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Brenda Fricker, Ray McAnally, Fiona Shaw, Alison Whelan Rated R (probably for Language and Brief Violence) "My Left Foot" feels like one of those movies designed to win Oscars and nothing else.  In fact, it did win two Oscars for the immortal Daniel Day-Lewis and Brenda Fricker, but apart from their strong work, there's not much else to remember about this movie.  It's well-acted, but all in all it's pretty dull. Christy Brown (Day-Lewis) is getting recognized for his work in order to raise money for the disabled.  Despite being a talented artist and writer, Christy is not the ideal candidate for the job.  He's an alcoholic jerk who makes no secret of his lust for women nor is he above using his disability to manipulate people into doing what he wants.  Interspersed with his attempts to seduce a woman tasked with looking after him while he awaits his entrance are vignettes from his childhood.  Most notably how his mothe...
Read more

Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love

1/4 Starring: Indira Varma, Sarita Choudhury, Naveen Andrews, Ramon Tikaram, Rekha The version of the film being reviewed is unrated.  For the record, the theatrical cut is rated R for Strong Erotic Sequences, Nudity and Some Violence No, I haven't started reviewing dirty movies. For those of you who come to my reviews from the links I post on Facebook (hazarding a guess, that's just about everyone), I'm sorry about the bait-and-switch.  I was trying to be clever.  In my defense, I considering warning people to stay away from this movie a public service.  Yes, it's one of those movies. "Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love" takes place in 16th century India.  Maya (Varma) is one of the servants of Tara (Choudhury), who has just become queen to Raj Singh (Andrews).  Tired of being a servant and getting hand-me-downs from Tara, Maya allows herself to be seduced by the philandering king.  Branded a whore, she's thrown out of the palace and ends up homeles...
Read more

The Road

3.5/4 Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Charlize Theron Rated R for Some Violence, Disturbing Images and Language "The Road" has to be the most downbeat, depressing and cynical movie I've ever seen.  That's not meant as a criticism, but a fact.  This is a tough movie to get through, but not a chore.  Those who venture in will find their time well spent, albeit not in a necessarily pleasant way.  Then again, if a movie is based off a novel by Cormac McCarthy, "pleasant" isn't a word one would hope to be used to describe it. The film takes place after the world has ended.  How it happened is not explained because it doesn't matter.  But any hope of the Earth recovering from what happened has long since gone.  A man (Mortensen) and his son (Smit-McPhee) are travelling together, trying to "get to the coast."  There are few people left, although considering what many are doing with the goal of survival, that's a good thing...
Read more