Think of Morning Glory as 1987’s Broadcast News-lite.

Rachel McAdams (The Notebook) gets top billing as TV news producer Becky Fuller over veteran actors that include Diane Keaton (The Godfather Trilogy) and the man who played Han Solo, Indiana Jones, Jack Ryan, and the Fugitive – Harrison Ford.

Becky is hired on as the new executive producer of Daybreak, a morning “news” magazine that’s last in the ratings and on the verge of cancellation. She keeps veteran anchor Colleen Peck (Keaton), but her trump card is veteran journalist Mike Pomeroy (Ford), a Walter Kronkite-esque newsman who is embittered over the sorry state of journalism today.

Blackballed by the news corporation that owns Daybreak, Pomeroy is hoping to slack off as he lives out the remaining two years of his $6 million contract. However, through a legal loophole, Fuller brings him kicking and screaming onto Daybreak, which he’s adamantly opposed to doing but has no choice. Ford’s character speaks in a low growl reminiscent of Clint Eastwood that’s just a notch below critical mass tension.

The rest is pretty formulaic: Pomeroy is a jerk at first, then he mellows, then the ratings go up, but Pomeroy says something stupid to make Becky accept a job at another network, then he must find a way to win her back.

McAdams, whom Entertainment Weekly says is a combination of Elizabeth Banks and Reese Witherspoon, has excellent comedic timing. She is the one who carries this film, not Keaton and Ford.

With Ford, it seems he wants to be in this movie as much as his character wants to anchor Daybreak. Both venture into new frontier here: Ford doing comedy (which he’s not really good at) instead of action roles, and Pomeroy doing fluff instead of hard news. Closing in on age 70, Ford has to go in a different direction because he’s way too old to play Indy as 2008’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull clearly demonstrated. Maybe he should try directing like Eastwood.

It’s an okay movie. It’s worth seeing at a matinee; don’t pay full price for it.

RATED PG-13 for foul language, sexual innuendo, sexual situations. 1 hour, 35 minutes.
GRADE: C+