Morning Glory: Grouchy Harrison Ford Defends the MSM

In the climax of Morning Glory, Rachel McAdams is dressed in the kind of cocktail dress a screen heroine wears when a slow-building love plot is coming to a head; it is the perfect costume for, say, leaving one suitor to run across Manhattan to another. Which McAdams’ Becky ultimately does, although the competitors for her attention are professional rather than personal. The only love Morning Glory truly cares about is the passionate but sexless amour fou between a girl and her work. As the new executive producer of a failing morning show, Becky swiftly proves her worth by firing a pervy male co-host and replacing him with Mike Pomeroy (Harrison Ford). Soon the film’s major conflict is set: “The world has been debating news vs. entertainment for years, and guess what? You lost!” Becky chides former war correspondent Mike. Morning Glory‘s central non-professional romance, between Becky and hunky Patrick Wilson, is cursory and unconvincing. That there’s no sexual charge between McAdams and Wilson might be a chemical problem between the actors, but it could also be intentional: Work is what turns on Morning Glory‘s most charismatic characters, to the point that outside relationships seem dull in comparison.