The Sunday Leader By Sumaya Samarasinghe
Sometimes intellectual depth isn’t really what one is seeking in a movie after a long week at work.
But of late, comedies have been predictable and become awfully boring before even they reach the half way mark. Little Fockers is the third film which follows the adventures of the Focker and Byrnes families after Meet The Parents ( 2000) which was about male nurse Greg Focker (an excellent Ben Stiller) who meets his fiancé’s parents before proposing to her and is far from welcome by his future father in law played by a traumatising Robert de Niro.
The film was followed by Meet The Fockers ( 2004) which suffered a severe plot degradation despite the presence of Dustin Hoffman and Barbara Streisand. Little Fockers as the title indicates is about the latest generation of Fockers and completely loses its plot about 45 minutes to one hour into the story. The corny moments are heavily accompanied by corny music and not even the talent of all the great actors in the film (We are talking here Robert de Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Blyth Danner, Barbara Streisand…), nor the drop dead beautiful Jessica Alba could stop one from pressing on the fast forward button and wanting the film to wrap up!Read more
Apart from The Godfather II which many consider way superior to Francis Ford Coppola’s first Godfather movie ; part II’s and III’s of films have rarely been better and more successful than their initial product; and unfortunately the Fockers series, follows the pattern of staring rather well and ending up in one big awful mess.
Sadly, there are no redeeming factors in the film, quite over acted and badly scripted, Little Fockers is an absolute waste of time.
Thankfully and too rarely, life throws you some pleasant surprises like in the case of Morning Glory starring Rachel McAdams, Harrisson Ford and Diane Keaton who lend their talent to probably one of the most likeable comedies recently made.
Rachel McAdams plays the spunky Becky Fuller who gets fired from her job as a producer on a pathetic morning show in New Jersey. But Becky is a fighter probably high on caffeine and red bull, and her pushy, positive and winning attitude lands her a position on a national network morning show called Day Break. At the first staff meeting, Becky looks like she is on the verge of collapsing and unable to cope with the millions of questions thrown at her, but suddenly words just pour out of her mouth much to the amazement of her team who all rally behind her after she fires the obnoxious male co-host of Colleen Peck played by the always wonderful Diane Keaton.
Her next mission is to find a suitable co-host and she picks the very reluctant Mike Pomeroy ( Harrisson Ford) who detests morning television and is known as the third worst person in the world by Becky fellow producer Adam. Ford has never been super expressive nor particularly funny in any of his roles. Viewers may actually get a pleasant surprise watching him in this film. He is very likable as the grouchy old journalist who gets into silly, but yet hilarious battles live on air with his co-host.
Of course, there is a high level of predictability in this film too. We know that Ford’s character will warm up to the over optimistic Becky and end by being quite a nice chap.
Morning Glory does not offer deep insight about journalism or media in general because it is not about great prize winning journalism anyway. Morning shows are for people to watch while drinking coffee and eating breakfast before heading to office, they are for housewives who have packed off their families for the day, they are there to pep you up in the morning and make you laugh a little.
However one does get an idea that the job is about rotten paycheques and awful working hours which will consume the journalist’s life and most often take away all chances of a normal private life.
Becky’s enthusiasm never drops despite the ratings plunging. She will succeed because she loves her job and completely believes in it without an ounce of cynicism. Her confidence and positive behaviour are contagious and completely change the dynamics of Day Break and those employed on it who become game to doing some pretty drastic things just for the sake of ratings!
The sweet and vulnerable side of Becky is that she is completely unaware of her charm and due to her lack of confidence, she comes close to ruining a potentially good relationship with Adam which is based more on mutual understanding and respect of each others’ profession and personalities than passionate sparks flying around.
Those who are not working in the media world may not completely share the same sense of humour as the protagonists of the film, but I, personally found myself laughing out aloud (and it has been a long time since that has happened while watching a film) during some of the scenes.
Directed by Roger Michel (Notting Hill), the film flows easily and is very pleasant to the eye eventhough at times, I thought the lovely Rachel McAdams was a little tiring to watch with her constant chatter and running around.
However, I would recommend a Morning Glory screening with friends and popcorn for a very pleasant evening.
