Four years after having homered in the Oscar race with TERMS OF ENDEARMENT (1983), James L. Brooks released BROADCAST NEWS, his much-anticipated sophomore feature film and again it became a big player and reaped 7 Oscar nominations, only to get the goose egg in the end of the game.
Set in the Washington DC's national TV broadcast station, the film is an unabashed workplace relationship comedy revolves around the young producer Jane Craig (Hunter), Tom Grunick (Hurt), a tenderfoot news anchorman promoted from sports department, and Aaron Altman (Albert Brooks ), Jane's best friend and co-worker, a talented writer who also aspires to shine in front of the camera.
The problem between Jane and Aaron is that, although they're intellectually matched, temperamentally congruent, they stay in the friend zone for far too long to get the motor running, that is in Jane's case, as for Aaron, overtly cottoning to her, he barely disguises the frustration that his affection is not being reciprocated, A. Brooks makes sure behind every line of Aaron and Jane's stimulating career-wise conversions and repartees, Aaron's pining for something more intimate from Jane is present with either a tender gaze or a winsome smile, which Hunter brilliantly counters with Jane's tacit knowingness and somewhat diffident evasiveness, as if she is saying an unuttered sorry.
Yet, Jane is anything but diffident when she is at work, a true dynamo in action, or interfacing with Tom, with whom she starts off quite on the wrong foot, after blatantly inviting him to her bedroom when they just make the acquaintance, a fun-seeking Jane conceitedly belittles Tom for his inexperience and naiveté, and is bemusedly stunned when he refuses to engage in a casual romp. Later, when she realizes Tom is the new anchorman of the station, her foreknowledge is that Tom is fingered for the job more owing to his telegenic handsomeness than occupational qualifications, despite of that, she is still attracted to him; Tom, on the other hand, has to prove that he is not merely a pretty face and actually excels in the cushy position he is designated , in the meantime,dealing with the fact that his romance conquest is a superiorly more intelligent woman than him, and not every member of the male species can field that situation tactfully, but Tom decides to give it a try.
First thing first, BROADCAST NEWS is remarkably and intransigently candid in exploring a successful career woman's conundrum of opting for her ideal “the significant other”, it is a walk-on-the-eggshell task, but JL Brooks' script upholds the strong woman -liberation ethos and offers Jane a firm purchase in her undeterred principles and journalistic ethics, even if the big switch near the end looks like a mote in the eyes of today's audience who has been weaned on the outrageous untruth from umpteen reality shows or/and the epidemic of unscrupulous journalism, it only reminds us a simpler bygone era when high moral yardstick can be erected to be a dealbreaker. Also judiciously, the story allocates some room for the non-virulent interrelation between the two male competitors,both Tom and Aaron appreciate each other's virtues and there is no grudge between them, how rare to see that happen on the screen in an 80s oldie!
The troika of the cast all receives an Oscar nomination, Hurt, ever-so unpretentious in projecting his understated WASP appeal, is the subtler player here; A. Brooks has a whale of time in juggling the comic relief snippets with a more empathetic turn in that “she is not that into you” fix, and generates much more amusing sparks with Hunter than the latter with Hurt; a petite Hunter, totally effectuates her take-no-prisoners chops with flying colors, even before the opening credits finish, her The immense acting range can already take viewers aback, and beholding her rendition of Jane's bluntness, spontaneity, wits, fierceness and vulnerability, we are so invested in such a fearless, honest woman and it is a plain crime she is robbed off an Oscar for such unparalleled brilliance. As regards the film per se, BROADCAST NEWS is,even too level-headed a rom-com for that often derogative bracket, certainly JL Brooks' best offering in his filmograghy, taking TERMS OF ENDEARMENT down a peg or two in this reviewer's book.
referential entries: Brooks' TERMS OF ENDEARMENT (1983, 7.8/10), AS GOOD AS IT GETS (1997, 7.3/10); Sidney Lumet's NETWORK (1976, 8.0/10).
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