“Morning Glory” begins with a firing. Becky (Rachel McAdams), a loyal producer on some local affiliate’s morning show, is dumped unceremoniously. All doom and gloom, her mom tells her that since she’s 28 years old, her dream of becoming a television producer is basically over. Five minutes later, Jerry Barnes (Jeff Goldblum) of IBS is on the phone, offering her a job to executive produce the network’s embarrassment of a morning show, “DayBreak.”

Becky has her work cut out for her. For starters, she has to deal with her two co-hosts. The first is the uppity mess that is Colleen Peck (Diane Keaton), and the second is Paul McVee (Ty Burrell), an anchor with a foot fetish. Becky fires the more disgusting one (that’d be Paul), and sets her sights on a new co-host: the acclaimed nightly news anchor Mike Pomeroy (Harrison Ford). She hires him, but as he’s a reporter of journalistic integrity, he doesn’t play ball.

Mike won’t banter with Colleen, and he refuses to say the word “fluffy.” In other words, he’s horrible for morning television. Becky makes it her mission to get Mike on board. And that’s as far as the story goes. We’re 30 minutes in, and the movie has nothing left to say for the next hour.

McAdams is peppy in a way that is more frightening than endearing. She’s always careening from one side of the screen to the other, and you’re always worried that she’s about to bump into somebody, knock a vase off the table or just stumble off the screen entirely (and yet, she never sweats through her work suit).

McAdams’ character is optimistic and nothing else. Basically, she staunchly believes that everyone can always do a better job than they are doing now, and sometime near the end of the movie you’ll realize that she’s given Mike the same pep talk on three separate occasions.

But take a step back, and you’ll see that Becky is the product of an underwritten story. The premise is initially exciting, but screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna runs through her bag of tricks in short order. There are only so many ways to lampoon morning television, and there are only so many times a weatherman can be enthusiastic about weather vanes before it becomes grating. In an effort to keep the movie under two hours long, the story blindsides Becky with hardship near the end, but before you know it, her darkest moment is over. Just in time for a segment on frittatas!

There are little moments of redemption. I think I could watch Matt Malloy ride, and pass out on, roller coasters for hours on YouTube. Keaton and Goldblum are perfectly cast. Too bad they’re hardly in the movie. Ford is suspiciously perfect for his role. He is “suspiciously perfect” because both Ford and his character are wildly overqualified for their positions, and you might just wonder if Ford is acting at all.

Directed by: Roger Michell
Starring: Rachel McAdams, Jeff Goldblum, Diane Keaton, Harrison Ford