Morning Glory

Morning Glory follows young and committed morning television producer Becky Fuller (Rachel McAdams) who has dreamed since childhood of working for the Today show. Since graduating from college, she has dedicated her life to her job, but her devotion to her career is off-putting to potential suitors. After being laid off from her job at the local Good Morning New Jersey because of budget cuts, she finally gets hired as an executive producer on the long-running morning show DayBreak, at the once-prominent but currently failing station, IBS.

Determined to keep the show on air, she recruits former news journalist and anchor Mike Pomeroy (Harrison Ford), who disapproves of co-hosting a show that does not deal with real, hard news. Pomeroy proves to be tough going, constantly battling with his co-host Colleen (Diane Keaton), refusing to banter on air, and refusing certain pieces, like cooking segments, that he considers beneath him.

Between ratings beginning to drop and struggling with warring co-hosts, Becky is told that DayBreak may be canceled. As a last ditch effort to bump the ratings, Becky decides on a radical and desperate approach to try and save the show.

Though the film didn't to incredibly well at the box office, I personally loved it. I thought it was a very funny and cute twist on the television industry. All of the actors bring a comical breath of fresh air to the film, and you can't help but laugh. I would absolutely recommend this film to someone.

ABOUT TIME

Due to the excessive boredom during winter break which included;

• irregular sleeping patterns 
• excessive partying 
• streaming movies illegally 

I was running out of movie options.. With a failed relationship the last thing I wanted to watch was a "love movie". Especially a movie that includes Rachel Mc Adams. You may know her from The Notebook, The Time Travelers Wife, and The Vow.  Don't get me wrong I believe she is a great actress, but in almost every movie I have seen (which include the above), the central theme involves love. As you can imagine I was not in a great state of mind to watch a love movie. However, I later made the decision to watch About Time.

About Time, was written and directed by Richard Cutris. The idea is simple, yet complex.  It's the idea of a man who has the ability to time travel to change his past in order to have a better future. Although, this movie is unrealistic because I mean I can't time travel to change my past. </3 However, not only does this movie show the love that Tim has for Marie. But, it shows the love that Tim has for his father and his freelance, carefree awesome hippy sister Kit Kat.

Tim tries to keep his family together. In all essence this movie was really a touching drama about the love between father and son. The end of the movie shows the closing to one of his last time traveling trips to visit his father, where he says his last good-bye.

There is a huge moral that lies in this story: Enjoy the important things in life, love, family, children and so forth.

The Draw of Nicholas Sparks

Nicholas Sparks has become a household name all over the country.  He is known for writing some of the most moving stories about love and life.  Yes love, it seems so cliché nowadays.  The perception of love in modern society has been skewed in our minds to being impossible to find or just a journey of constant heartbreak.  For many of us though, this perception seems about right.  However, when I watch one of his films or read his books, I find myself in awe of the beautiful writing and characters that keep me locked in the moments of what we all wish to experience one day.  His most famous books to date are The Notebook, A Walk to Remember, Dear John, The Lucky One, Safe Haven, and The Last Song.  Having seen all of them, I have found myself asking what it is about his works that make such an impact on myself and others that other movies in particular do not.  So in asking that question, I have broken it down into two reasons of why Nicholas Sparks’ movies are so successful.

The Main Characters & Actors

            To state the obvious, EVERYONE IS BEAUTIFUL! You have Ryan Gossling and Rachel McAdams in The Notebook, Shane West and Mandy Moore in A Walk to Remember, Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried in Dear John, Zac Efron and Taylor Schilling in The Lucky One, Josh Duhmel and Julianne Hough in Safe Haven, and Liam Hemsworth and Miley Cyrus in The Last Song.  Woah!  Im not sure I know too many people who don’t fantasize about at least one of these actors or actresses frequently which only adds to the impact of the story but of course doesn’t make it.  The characters that each actor or actress plays seem to hold the perfect qualities in a human that every girl or boy wishes they could find. Though maybe not from the start, eventually they evolve and build our likeness for the person more and more throughout the movie.  They help us get lost in their emotions and draw us into their situations so it’s as if we are there.  They seem to represent something we want so badly in our lives personally and makes us feel like it is in arms reach.

Also, not only does he create these beautiful characters that we cant help but love, he creates characters that we cant help but hate or make us sad or mad.  Whether the character is sick, dying, abusive, or you name it, they become this barrier that must be broken down and creates a struggle not only for the characters in the film but also for the audience.  Our connections with these characters make us feel protective of them. Emotions suddenly start building as soon as things don’t go the way we want which brings us on the love journey in the first place.

The Plotline

            After reading several of Nicholas Sparks’ books and watching just about every single movie, of which many he wrote and produced himself as well, I have realized that most of his stories are based on a similar storyline.  There are the two characters who want to be with one another however, someone or something gets in the way. Yes sounds like any other love story, yet each story has these hidden meanings that we don’t initially catch from the beginning that surprise us in the end. Nicholas Sparks has mastered the skill of portraying a scene in such a way that he convinces us that we know what is going to happen and in the end then proves us wrong.  Theres the first meeting, then the connection, the conflict, the surprise, then the ending, and a lot more in between. 

Nicholas Sparks’ ability to write great characters and stories that resonate to many lives is the reason why I believe he is so successful.