Cast: Rachel McAdams, Harrison Ford, Diane Keaton, Jeff Goldblum, Patrick Wilson
Becky (McAdams) is a prissy, neurotic workaholic – a dream employee, but a nightmare date. As producer of a suburban morning news programme, and with the unusual hours that this entails, Becky lives in a lonely cycle of blackberry chimes, failed dates, and take-out food. It all seems worth it with her inevitable promotion on the horizon; but when the anticipated meeting with her boss results in her dismissal rather than promotion, Becky finds herself speechless, helpless, and jobless. After weeks of racing around Manhattan handing out resumes Becky finally lands a job as producer of Daybreak – a crumbling morning show at an underperforming station, assembled from a hopeless gaggle of misfits and crackpots, with an ageing, egotistical presenter, Colleen (Keaton).
Becky, determined to keep the job and improve the ratings, immediately fires Colleen’s sleazy co-anchor (a move that gains her a lot of popularity) and goes in search of a cheap replacement. Her best option seems to be a horse-faced weatherman from Florida, until she discovers that legendary news anchor Mike Pomeroy (Ford) has a year left on his contract with the station. Pomeroy is an aloof, growling alcoholic with an abject hatred of modernity and ‘sweetness’, and he refuses to entertain this insufferable little girl’s request. Faced with an ironclad contract, he is forced to join the tacky show, but as Becky is about to find out… you can only lead a horse to water.
Becky seems to be winning people over at the station, not least the station’s most eligible bachelor, Adam (Wilson); but Pomeroy refuses to do anything other than sulk on camera and deride the tetchy Colleen’s credentials, and news that the show will be cancelled if ratings don’t improve leaves Becky desperate for a solution. In a short space of time, Becky needs to make the show more entertaining (i.e. trashy) while also persuading the pretentious Pomeroy that the show has integrity, and spending more time thinking about her personal life with Adam. There is no way she can do all this on her own… so will Pomeroy come out of his cave and help the poor girl before it is too late?
Roger Michell’s film is a straightforward romantic comedy, refreshingly strong on the latter and sparing with the former. This might be Becky’s story, but her personally romance with Adam is sidelined in order to give Harrison Ford as much screen time as possible. Rachel McAdams is perfect in the leading role – she is a talented and confident actress with enough experience to know that this was always going to be Ford’s show. She is also, thankfully, wise enough to realise that trying to imbue Becky with attractive qualities like being demure, or mysterious, or latently sexual would never have worked. This girl is a sickly-sweet, anxious, twitching fawn who wears her heart on her sleeve; she is adorably pathetic, and McAdams pulls it off perfectly without trying to steal the show.
Ford is wonderful as the bitter, boozing hermit – he growls and moans, but there is always a playful glint in his eye and the faintest wrinkle of a smile radiating through his dimples. He has been playing ‘disinterested cool’ since we first met the captain of the Millennium Falcon thirty years ago; and he just gets cooler with age. The only thing more entertaining than his spats with the feisty young McAdams are the catfights he shares with the deliciously mean and simpering Diane Keaton. Michell has wisely avoided ‘Sex and The City’ romance or a commentary on the quality of network television in favour of a long series of anecdotes and quick-witted arguments. It is a well-structured, solid Hollywood ‘movie’ that will provide a bit of harmless entertainment… it is like a donut with plenty of sugar, but just enough bran to make it filling.
Becky (McAdams) is a prissy, neurotic workaholic – a dream employee, but a nightmare date. As producer of a suburban morning news programme, and with the unusual hours that this entails, Becky lives in a lonely cycle of blackberry chimes, failed dates, and take-out food. It all seems worth it with her inevitable promotion on the horizon; but when the anticipated meeting with her boss results in her dismissal rather than promotion, Becky finds herself speechless, helpless, and jobless. After weeks of racing around Manhattan handing out resumes Becky finally lands a job as producer of Daybreak – a crumbling morning show at an underperforming station, assembled from a hopeless gaggle of misfits and crackpots, with an ageing, egotistical presenter, Colleen (Keaton).
Becky, determined to keep the job and improve the ratings, immediately fires Colleen’s sleazy co-anchor (a move that gains her a lot of popularity) and goes in search of a cheap replacement. Her best option seems to be a horse-faced weatherman from Florida, until she discovers that legendary news anchor Mike Pomeroy (Ford) has a year left on his contract with the station. Pomeroy is an aloof, growling alcoholic with an abject hatred of modernity and ‘sweetness’, and he refuses to entertain this insufferable little girl’s request. Faced with an ironclad contract, he is forced to join the tacky show, but as Becky is about to find out… you can only lead a horse to water.
Becky seems to be winning people over at the station, not least the station’s most eligible bachelor, Adam (Wilson); but Pomeroy refuses to do anything other than sulk on camera and deride the tetchy Colleen’s credentials, and news that the show will be cancelled if ratings don’t improve leaves Becky desperate for a solution. In a short space of time, Becky needs to make the show more entertaining (i.e. trashy) while also persuading the pretentious Pomeroy that the show has integrity, and spending more time thinking about her personal life with Adam. There is no way she can do all this on her own… so will Pomeroy come out of his cave and help the poor girl before it is too late?
Roger Michell’s film is a straightforward romantic comedy, refreshingly strong on the latter and sparing with the former. This might be Becky’s story, but her personally romance with Adam is sidelined in order to give Harrison Ford as much screen time as possible. Rachel McAdams is perfect in the leading role – she is a talented and confident actress with enough experience to know that this was always going to be Ford’s show. She is also, thankfully, wise enough to realise that trying to imbue Becky with attractive qualities like being demure, or mysterious, or latently sexual would never have worked. This girl is a sickly-sweet, anxious, twitching fawn who wears her heart on her sleeve; she is adorably pathetic, and McAdams pulls it off perfectly without trying to steal the show.
Ford is wonderful as the bitter, boozing hermit – he growls and moans, but there is always a playful glint in his eye and the faintest wrinkle of a smile radiating through his dimples. He has been playing ‘disinterested cool’ since we first met the captain of the Millennium Falcon thirty years ago; and he just gets cooler with age. The only thing more entertaining than his spats with the feisty young McAdams are the catfights he shares with the deliciously mean and simpering Diane Keaton. Michell has wisely avoided ‘Sex and The City’ romance or a commentary on the quality of network television in favour of a long series of anecdotes and quick-witted arguments. It is a well-structured, solid Hollywood ‘movie’ that will provide a bit of harmless entertainment… it is like a donut with plenty of sugar, but just enough bran to make it filling.
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