Behind the scenes at a network morning news show…. Rachel McAdams plays a producer at a local morning news show in New Jersey who is fired when top management wants to put somebody they are grooming for corporate leadership into that position. She sends her resume everywhere and gets hired to try to revive a tired network morning show that is facing cancellation if the ratings don't go up. She immediately fires the obnoxious male co-host and, discovering that a famous retired TV anchorman is still under contract to the network for two more years, forces him to agree to co-host her show, "Daybreak." (The trick is that his contract with the network provides two more years of top compensation as long as he is willing to fill any news slot they offer him, so he can't say no.) Harrison Ford plays the news veteran. His co-host is a very prima donna style Diane Keaton, and of course there is no love lost between them. He is massively uncooperative, driving her crazy… (There is also a distracting secondary romantic story between her and a handsome producer on a magazine-type show on the same network.) Things work out in the end (plot spoiler!). But then, you knew that.
In other words, this is totally predictable, slight as fluff, and a pleasant way to pass some time, although through most of the film you'll feel like giving Harrison Ford a kick and asking "what's your problem, bud?" In other words, it seems like an overextended TV sitcom, and you wonder what this is doing on the big screen in a theater. Maybe it should have been a movie of the week and then gone straight to DVD and downloading. Harrison Ford fans will get their fill, and Rachel McAdams (who looks a lot like Sarah Palin) can acquire new fans, as she does just fine as a clutzy woman with loads of heart.
Anyway…. I'm in Ormond Beach and there is a limited number of films running suitable to take Mom out… That's my excuse. And she didn't even like it. Which is no rap on it, necessarily, because she doesn't like much of anything, although in retrospect, comparing this film after dinner, she liked yesterday's film (Love & Other Drugs) better.