Weekend Movie Forecast: Morning Glory Vs. Unstoppable

It's kind of fun and a little sad to be around long enough to see where famous aging celebrities are put. We're not talking about some A-List nursing home (though that would be the best reality TV show ever), but the roles that these once highly-demanded stars are given as we watch them slowly die on the big screen. Now Diane Keaton has already settled into her autumn persona, a kind of hip grandmother who acts as a vehicle for the romantic desires of the post-menopause crowd in films such as Something's Gotta Give. Harrison Ford on the other hand, has had some problems finding the right character to play for the remainder of his career. He's tried the doctor thing, but no one wants to see that, and he's getting a little too old to be walking around with a whip, so that leaves only one more role: crotchety old man! If you think about it, it's the role he's been building up to his entire career. In his younger, more youthful years that sass and gruff charm made him a man's man and rugged hunk for the ladies. Now that he's older, that same stoicism has aged into a cranky old man, and it should fit him like a glove. Coming out today is the light newsroom comedy Morning Glory and it'll give audiences a chance to see the curmudgeon in action. Plot: Rachel McAdams looks good and attempts to balance a love life and produce a morning talk show with two washed up actors. Delightful!Reviews have been typical for your light comedy fare, with David Fear from Time Out New York saying: "Cast as a go-getter revamping a failing morning TV show, McAdams gives us one great scene: Having a million requests thrown at her during an editorial meeting, she methodically fires back answers, capping it off by sacking the office perv. Itâs a winning mocha-swirl moment of motormouth and backbone. After that, we simply get 90 minutes of skin-of-the-teeth desperation and sweat-gland panic."Such as: How does one cast Harrison Ford as a Mike Wallaceâish hard-ass and Diane Keaton as a Katie Couric clone, yet totally fail to generate any comic chemistry? Or expect an oddly bland Patrick Wilson to genuinely compete with McAdamsâs true amore, her job? Or suggest that veteran muckrakers should lighten up while also positing that the infotainment news world requires more journalistic rigorâand not see that as contradictory? This charmless movie thinks it can soft-sell its date-night love story and its media meta-jabs without people feeling theyâve been bamboozled on either count. " — Gothamist

Robert Horan

Published Nov 12, 2010

Modified Nov 12, 2010

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Click on the film stills for more details and reviews on this week's new releases and repertory screenings, which include: Morning Glory, Helena From the Wedding, Poison, Tiny Furniture, Cool It, Unstoppable, Bruce Conner: The Art of Montage, Disco and Atomic War, Con Artist, Voulez-vous coucher avec God?, Doctor Butcher M.D. and The Night of the Hunter.