Broadcast News - 1987
Never before have Sorkin's Newsroom and Sports Night made such sense to me. I'm tempted to deny their status as "homages" to this masterwork. Perhaps they are more aptly direct rips (and they are exceptional because of it). This film is simply a wonder to behold. I CANNOT believe I have missed it all of these years. Why didn't anyone tell me?!! How does this not even SNIFF the AFI list or Sight & Sound? What have we all been missing?
Holly Hunter is simply en fuego. This may be one of the five greatest female lead performances I've ever seen. It is a complete tour de force. Rarely have I seen a film with three pitch perfect lead performers near the height of their popularity. They are so expertly cast here. They are so well-drawn and full-orbed. They each have their precise idiosyncrasies (or is that an oxymoron?) Finally, speaking of characterization, this is quite frankly one of the best screenplays in existence. It is by turns hilarious, emotionally resonant, profound, and entirely mundane. What James L. Brooks has accomplished here is something so rare, a work of art which has the rhythms of the everyday working world but is never less than captivating cinema.
Countless films have explored the "love triangle" angle before. This is nothing new. But the way it is mined here is unique. Hunter is the strong, vivacious, and passionate news producer who is equal parts fire and heart. She works tirelessly at her job and her love for the news is only succeeded by her heart for her co-workers. One of these is her closest male friend, Aaron Altman (played so stirringly by Albert Brooks). Aaron is the smartest guy in every room, but he never seems to get the success he so deserves. He secretly (and then not so secretly) pines for Jane (Hunter's character). He declares this openly in one of the best lines of the film: "I would give anything if you were two people, so that I could call up the one who's my friend and tell her about the one that I like so much!"
Then, enter Tom, the hunky William Hurt in all his glory. Tom Grunick is smart at some things (as we learn in a great scene on delivering the news with Brooks), but is really quite daft about the whole affair. He is the classic guy who can't stop winning and succeeding, even if he hasn't earned much of any of it. The problem?...Jane finds herself falling head over heels for Tom's wiles (despite her own internal protests). Mix these ingredients together with some of the best words written for a screen, and you have a cocktail for the ages.
The people chewing the scenery on the edges of this picture are something else too. Jack Nicholson makes his way in and out of a couple of sequences just for effect. One particularly memorable scene pits the effervescent Joan Cusack (poofy hair be damned!) against the running clock of coming air time.
Perhaps this is so smart because Brooks researched it all for so long. He interviewed countless news folks from rooms in both DC and New York. Because of this, Broadcast News is not simply a film about romance and working life, it's also one with big ideas. Most notably the influence of the entertainment world and its (originally) subtle manipulations into capital N news. Indeed, the convergence of these two things is what brings the internal conflict between Jane and Tom to a head in the film's climax.
Much more could be said about the picture. I could list 50 witty jabs from Aaron to Tom, or further parse the incredible friendship which stirs such ire between Jane and Aaron. (This film has one of the best shouting fight scenes around). We could actually criticize the film's ending, which somehow both satisfies and confounds. Some moments I think I love it, others I wanted something completely different. But I’ll end by noting what stood out to me most of all. That is the face acting. The non-verbals. Brooks’ sweating on camera profusely. His sarcastic side glances. Tom’s bravura at the newsdesk. The interchange of Hunter and Hurt in each other’s ears (and heads) on that first newscast. Hunter’s facial acting alone should win an award here. This picture simply doesn’t go without it. Put together, it’s all the work of a maestro conducting his finest orchestra.
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