Everyone remembers a horrible job they had, where their work wasn’t seen and they weren’t respected. Those are the jobs people want to forget about, but they’re also the jobs that prepare us for the “real world”—a place where you can’t afford to pick and choose when it comes to paying for your livelihood.
Morning Glory examines the life of Becky Fuller (Rachel McAdams) as she searches for a new job, after she is let go from a company from which she thought she might receive a promotion. Her old job at Good Morning New Jersey had her as a producer, and her dream was to become an executive producer at The Today Show—a prestigious role at a huge company.
Fuller goes to her mother for support, only to be told that her childhood dream is now becoming an embarrassment and she should find something “real” to do. But one thing you need to know about Becky Fuller is that she doesn’t give up. Fuller sends several copies of her résumé to all the morning shows in the New York area and finally gets a callback for an interview at Day Break, a show that’s losing its viewers and completely falling apart behind the scenes.
The new job title is a step up from her old position, and after being denied the executive producer position by Jerry Barnes (Jeff Goldblum), he changes his mind and offers Fuller the job under the condition that she can increase the show’s ratings.
The first day on the job proves difficult. The show, the cast, and the producers are disorganized in comparison to Good Morning New Jersey. The show’s hosts, Colleen Peck (Diane Keaton) and Paul McVee (Ty Burell), prove to be entirely different from what they convey on TV. Peck, who has been with the show since it began, has extremely high demands, while McVee sleeps with and cheats on all of the women on the show.
After firing McVee on her first day, Fuller hunts for a new co-host and eventually coerces Mike Pomeroy (Harrison Ford) into the role, a news anchor with 40 years of experience who refuses to play nice. Between name-calling everyone on the set and refusing to say the word “fluffy”, Pomeroy makes Fuller’s full-time gig a problem. Barnes tells Fuller that she has only six weeks to raise the viewer ratings, a task that proves difficult due to the show’s disorganization and Pomeroy’s refusal to do his job. At the same time, Fuller falls for Adam Bennett (Patrick Wilson), who has worked with Pomeroy in the past and helps Fuller along the way.
The rest of the film follows Fuller’s attempts at raising the ratings while trying to juggle a relationship and handle the crazy co-hosts. McAdams shines as a stressed television producer trying to make her breakthrough at The Today Show, while the banter between Keaton and Ford as co-hosts makes a strong comedic performance. Morning Glory will make you reconsider that crappy job and enable you to find the good in it, even if you can’t recognize it right away.
