Rachel McAdams, Diane Keaton and Harrison Ford

Men like her. Women like her. Dentists adore her.

When she was bratting around the edges of "Mean Girls," Rachel McAdams had yet to ease into her true qualities. But now the performer blessed with the major-league toothsome smile has far, far more than dewy youth in her favor.

There are plenty of nice faces in the movies. Some are even worth 11, 12 bucks for a couple of stargazing hours.

McAdams, though, can act. She's genuinely versatile. She has an honest, penetrating way of conveying a character's delight, even when we may not believe the circumstances ("Wedding Crashers"). She brings a shrewd urgency and presence to genre pieces such as "Red Eye," and can elevate romance-novelistic hooey, along the lines of "The Notebook," to the point where it becomes a hit.

If the romantic comedy "Morning Glory" clicks with audiences, the McAdams factor surely will be the reason why.

She plays a variant on Mary Tyler Moore's Mary Richards, whose spunk was so memorably derided by Ed Asner's Lou Grant. Here that salient quality is characterized as "repellent moxie" by the female protagonist's primary adversary, an old-school Murrow-esque legend played by Harrison Ford. Plot: After being downsized out of a job on "Good Morning, New Jersey" Becky Fuller (McAdams) convinces the producer (Jeff Goldblum) of a low-rated Manhattan-based morning show to give her a shot.

Her show-runner mission is to turn the low-rated "Daybreak" ("just like 'The Today Show,' without the money, viewers or respect") into something more than a sinkhole. Becky arm-twists Mike Pomeroy (Ford) to co-anchor, against his will, opposite an ex-beauty pageant flibbertigibbet (Diane Keaton, without enough to do). Romance blooms for Becky in the form of the Ivy League dreamboat played by Patrick Wilson. Each complication in Aline Brosh McKenna's script does its clinically prescribed job and makes way for the next.

Director Roger Michell ("Notting Hill") makes New York and environs look very pretty. I do wish, though, that Ford had found a more interesting attack on his bull-headed character. His performance is built entirely on discomfort -- the character's own, as well as the unease it generates in others. Ford lays it on so thickly that he keeps grinding the scenes to a halt. That's the great thing about Keaton (though you'd hardly know it here, the way her character is marginalized): She knows rhythm and has her ear tuned to the overall scene, not just her measures within it.

Same goes for McAdams, who pours on the can-do optimism and pep and, yes, spunk, without exhausting the audience. Too much of the script makes too little sense: When the heroine's mother (Patti D'Arbanville) urges Becky to flush her dreams and do something practical, you think: Wait. This kid's been out of work for, like, 10 minutes and you're saying nix broadcast journalism? Not that it was striving to be "Broadcast News," but "Morning Glory" comes a lot closer in its sensibility to "That Girl," which Marlo Thomas sold quite well. McAdams does likewise here. Clearly she's jazzed about proving herself up against pros as disparate as Keaton, Goldblum and -- despite his stridency -- Ford. It pays off with the rom-com equivalent of a glass half-full.

 

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"Morning Glory" Movie Trailer

 

MPAA rating: PG-13 (for some sexual content, including dialogue, language and brief drug references).

Running time: 1:42.

Cast: Rachel McAdams (Becky Fuller); Harrison Ford (Mike Pomeroy); Diane Keaton (Colleen Peck); Patrick Wilson (Adam Bennett); Jeff Goldblum (Jerry Barnes).

Credits: Directed by Roger Michell; written by Aline Brosh McKenna; produced by J.J. Abrams and Bryan Burk. A Paramount Pictures release.

 

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When hard-working TV producer Becky Fuller (Rachel McAdams) is fired from a local news program, her career begins to look as bleak as her hapless love life. Stumbling into a job at "Daybreak" (the last-place national morning news show), Becky decides to revitalize the show by bringing on legendary TV anchor Mike Pomeroy (Harrison Ford). Unfortunately, Pomeroy refuses to cover morning show staples like celebrity gossip, weather, fashion and crafts – let alone work with his new co-host, Colleen Peck (Diane Keaton), a former beauty queen and longtime morning show personality who is more than happy covering morning "news."

As Mike and Colleen clash, first behind the scenes and then on the air, Becky's blossoming love affair with fellow producer, Adam Bennett (Patrick Wilson) begins to unravel – and soon Becky is struggling to save her relationship, her reputation, her job and ultimately, the show itself.