MORNING GLORY (2010) (***)

NOTTING HILL director Roger Michell's comedy is an often hilarious look at morning shows. It reminded me of BROADCAST NEWS, only frothier like its subject matter. At some point a character observes that since the beginning of TV there has been a battle between entertainment and the news and entertainment won a long time ago. Entertainment certainly wins here.

That character is Becky Fuller (Rachel McAdams, THE NOTEBOOK), a constantly working producer for a local New Jersey morning show, who dreams of producing TODAY someday. That's when she is laid off. She interviews with Jerry Barnes (Jeff Goldblum, THE FLY), an exec at IBS, whose morning show is the lowest rated on network television. He begrudgingly hires her because he's desperate. The kid can't make it worse, can she?

Becky gets thrown into the fire on day one and has to learn the politics of the show quickly. Colleen Peck (Diane Keaton, SOMETHING'S GOTTA GIVE) is a former beauty queen who has been the long-suffering host of the show who has outlived dozens of co-hosts. Becky wants to make big changes to the show in order to revitalize it. One of her ideas is to hire the network's legendary newscaster Mike Pomeroy (Harrison Ford, STAR WARS), who is working out his contract doing Sunday morning political chat. Becky asks him nicely to join her show, but he looks at her like she was flinging feces at him. That's when she gets tough and whips out his contract. But getting him to join the show and participate in the show are two different things.

McAdams carries the film and reminds us why we love seeing her in everything that she does. Writer Aline Brosh McKenna (THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA) gives her a great character to play and she fills it with energy that bubbles over into every aspect of the production. Becky is a go-getter whose determination is inspiring. She gets cheesy weatherman Ernie Appleby (Matt Malloy, IN THE COMPANY OF MEN) to do crazy stunts for thrills. This spurs Colleen to join in the fun for the more active pieces like getting attacked by zoo animals or dressing up like a sumo wrestler.

But can Becky even get Pomeroy to crack a smile? The film's chief conflict forms between the two. He sees her as the anti-Christ of everything he holds dear. He is happy to read the hard news at the top of the show and do nothing else. Even getting him to banter with Colleen is like pulling teeth. He has so much contempt for the entire show that the night before he is scheduled to debut, he goes on a bender. Becky the dutiful producer hunts him down and stays with him in order to chaperone him to the studio in the morning.

The film waters her down a bit when it tries to deal with how her job keeps her from having a personal life. The handsome news producer Adam Bennett (Patrick Wilson, LITTLE CHILDREN) shows up to be a love interest. There isn't any style conflict between them like William Holden and Faye Dunaway's characters in NETWORK or the competitive triangle that formed between William Hurt, Albert Brooks and Holly Hunter in BROADCAST NEWS. It's not bad, only a squandered opportunity to weave smarts and Bennett more fully into the overall story.

While the closing conflicts are predictable, the film stays true to its premise. It never stretches credibility to force character turnarounds. Like its main character, the film keeps up a cheery tone and go for broke attitude. The humor comes naturally from the pop fun of morning shows and how Pomeroy despises it. MORNING GLORY isn't a hard expose of the morning show racket, but a fun entertainment that has its facts straight and rides along on the personalities of its presenters.