Morning Glory and the Young Professional

The motley crew of Daybreak

Warning: This blog post contains spoilers.

Recently, I saw the film Morning Glory in theatres. I was rather excited to see it as Diane Keaton is one of my absolute favorite actresses, and I adore Rachel McAdams.

If you’re not familiar with the film, it’s the story of this hard working twentysomething woman named Becky who is fired from her small-time producing job on a small local morning show in New Jersey. It’s her dream to work on The Today Show, but it’s a goal that seems completely out of reach. After a great deal of hounding, she finally lands an executive producing gig on a struggling morning talk show, Daybreak, on the fictional network IBS. It’s in fourth place, so it doesn’t attract the best talent, crew or guest stars, but Becky hits the ground running regardless.

After a lackluster start, even when she manages to bring on a broadcast news legend, Mike Pomeroy (Harrison Ford) as co-anchor, she is warned that if the ratings don’t go up, they will cancel the show. So Becky tries everything, including setting the weatherman through outrageous stunts. Ratings do go up, but it’s just not good enough for the network.

Part of the problem is Pomeroy. He considers himself to be a serious newscaster, and finds most of the topics covered on Daybreak are frivolous at best, and he has a tenuous relationship with his co-anchor, Colleen Peck (played beautifully by the amazing Diane Keaton).

Eventually, Pomeroy breaks a huge news story, and Daybreak is first on the scene. The show gains great notoriety, and finally gets over its final ratings hurdle. Becky is brought in to interview for a producing job at the The Today Show, her dream job. And she’s under 30!

I’ll spare you the last details of how it resolves (although, fair warning, it’s rather cheesy), but as a fellow young professional, I felt the film did a great job of portraying people in different stages of their careers.

Working with, or is it on?, her anchors

I rather identified with Becky – she is an incredibly hard-working woman and absolutely dedicated to her job. Her job is her passion and her life, so much so that it consumes her. While I admittedly do not carry quite the equivalent level of passion for my profession, I understand what it is like to be consumed by responsibilities. She finds it difficult to balance her personal life, and often has trouble with dating because she’s married to her Blackberry and holds odd hours. Even when she meets a great man, working on a financial show at IBS, she continues to struggle with making enough time for him.

Becky is also incredibly driven. After being laid off from her job at the local news show, she wastes little time to lament. After her mother assures her that her dreams of The Today Show are too unrealistic now that she’s quickly approaching 30, and she should settle down, she launches an attack with her resume. (I hated her mother in the film, because what mother would console her daughter after being laid off by telling her that she cannot achieve her biggest dream in life? Just horrible. Even if she was approaching 30, she should have continued to support her daughter, no matter what.) But regardless, Becky pushes on, secures an apartment with a newspaper and a cell phone while traveling on the Staten Island Ferry, and gets a new job quickly. You have to admire her tenacity about getting a new job. While I don’t necessary agree with bombarding one person with your resume until they agree to meet with you, she had the courage and, well, the balls to go get what she wanted. And I commend that.

Once in the work place, she showed wisdom beyond her years. As her new employees threw questions at her, she made sound decisions without breaking a sweat. She promptly fired the creepy co-host and brought on a rather unwilling Mike Pomeroy. She saved the show from cancellation, and made herself and her career successful in the process.

Mike Pomeroy, on the other hand, is an interesting character. He joins Daybreak because of his contract with IBS – it’s worth millions and will be forfeited if he doesn’t appear on television. He is in it for the money, and acts superior and curmudgeonly throughout a majority of the film. His huge contrast to the young Becky did have me thinking about generational divides – can our seasoned career veterans take their duties less seriously because they’ve paid their dues? Especially if they’re only doing it for the money? Becky would not have gotten anywhere if she carried the same attitude. While Becky’s drive is likely ingrained into her personality and less a symptom of her generation, we up-and-comers do need to show this sort of attitude in order to move up. While there will always be people who move up because of their connections, hard work is still absolutely important.

For once, we get to see a successful woman who earns her success through talent, hard work and drive, instead of getting ahead with the wrong criteria. She crosses generations, and even moves Pomeroy into doing his job well. Becky is a game changer on Daybreak, and I applaud the film for showing a strong female character who grows her own power without being too sexy or bitchy, but just an average incredibly hard-working twentysomething with dreams and aspirations.

If you saw Morning Glory, how did you feel it portrayed young (and old) professionals in the workplace?

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