Ella McCay Review

Octogenarian James L. Brooks returns to filmmaking for the first time in 15 years. This time, the director of Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News and As Good as It Gets makes an ensemble comedy-drama set during the 2008 recession.

Ella McCay (Emma Mackey) is the 34-year-old lieutenant governor who succeeds her boss, Bill Moore (Albert Brooks), as governor after he gets offered a cabinet position by the newly elected president. Ella’s an idealist and a policy wonk who has to deal with political and personal challenges in the space of three days.

Brooks has had a great career. He’s the co-creator of shows like Taxi and, most importantly, The Simpsons, won three Academy Awards for Terms of Endearment, and his production companies have made shows and films like The Critic, Big and Bottle Rocket. Sadly, his skills seem to be fading with age: his previous film, How Do You Know, was a massive flop, and Ella McCay has followed a similar path. It could only muster a 24% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and at my screening, there were only two people in attendance on a Saturday lunchtime.

Ella McCay was made up of many storylines. In the film Ella has to juggle storylines, like getting an early years intervention bill through the state legislature, battle her party because she was more interested in solving issues instead of politicking, a political scandal involving her husband, Ryan (Jack Lowden), her absentee father (Woody Harrelson) return to attempt a reconciliation, and trying to help her brother, Casey (Spike Fearn) who hasn’t left his apartment for 13 months. The film had a mass of characters and storylines that, if left like this was a concept for a TV series, would have been the Ally McBeal of politics and be pitched to the big US networks.

Ella McCay suffered from an odd paradox since there were too many characters, but the main story was thin. It was stretched out, like a story involving one of Ella’s protection officers trying to make more money after his divorce. Another storyline involved Casey reconciling with his girlfriend, with a well-known actress wasted in a minor role. Ella was someone who went from place to place to try to solve problems.

Ella McCay was stacked with talents. Besides the already mentioned actors, the film had Jamie Lee Curtis, Julie Kavner (AKA Marge Simpson), Kumail Nanjiani, Ayo Edebiri, and Rebecca Hall. Mackey did her best to try to elevate the material as she did with Hot Milk. Her character came across as a likeable and passionate person, despite having a reputation for being off-putting, like Pia in the BBC sitcom Defending the Guilty. The film’s attempt to make some characters look younger was hilariously bad, like Harrelson being given a bad wig, and the teenage version of Ella having a fringe.

Ella McCay was marketed as a comedy, but it lacked in this department. There were some ideas, like Ella accidentally ingesting some marijuana products and she needed to wait out the high, but wasn’t fully realised. Jamie Lee Curtis tried to enhance the comedy by making her performance as broad as possible, like she was in a Freaky Friday movie. Otherwise, scenes were meant to be funny because of the music cues.

The filmmakers did have a well-meaning message. The film opened with a message that politics in 2008 was more civil, and Ella wanted to achieve a political consensus. It was the idealised view of what America should be. Ella was interested in policy detail, which stands in contrast to today’s politics of extremism, populism, and rhetoric. The film even had a message that even small policies can have a major impact. Yet, political nerds will be disappointed since any look at political dealings or Ella’s improving political fortunes was fleeting.

Ella McCay was a film that did not fulfil its potential. The cast was wasted, and the story was undercooked. It has clearly been buried between much bigger releases.