Before: Oh, James L. Brooks, we missed you!
After: Well … not so much as it turns out.
Welcome to the world of Ella McCay; it is a world in which hopes and aspirations initially soar and quietly die. For a film that clearly wants to be an Erin Brockovich-type love letter to single women, it instead comes off more as an Erin Brockovich love-letter to dysfunctional relationships and bad partnerships.
Ella McCay (Emma Mackey) begins the film as Lieutenant Governor in the state of … [insert state here] Is this a quiz? Do we get to guess the state? It’s one that has snow, and a genuine city or two, but nothing overwhelming in terms of size or population, and one that has a HUGE government mansion. Looks northeastern. Oh, but one that has much better diversity than, say, anything north of Massachusetts.
The film establishes Ella as a policy wonk who backended her way into the Lt. Governorship. This is where the particular anonymous “state” matters, because in 43 of them, the Lt. Governor position is an elected one, which means -despite optics- Ella is no stranger to soliciting donations and playing the game, both of which the film claims otherwise. (In the other seven, there either is NO Lt Gov position, or it’s elected by the state legislature, in which case the titular woman would still have to know how to lobby.) Ella’s dad (Woody Harrelson) is slimy, her husband (Jack Lowden) is a manipulative reptile, and her brother (Spike Fearn) is a basket case. Cancer took Ella’s mother out of the picture years ago. Almost by default, Ella herself draws strength from her manic aunt Helen (Jamie Lee Curtis).
And all of these relationships are, apparently, important and instrumental to Ella, despite the fact that Ella has become a kick-ass politician at such a young age. I don’t honestly think any of that is possible IRL, especially for someone who ascends because of attention to policy and neither by nepotism nor charisma. But let’s pretend this is all possible, leading to the next major hurdle, the governorship, which is handed to Ella when Governor Bill (Albert Brooks) is tabbed for Secretary of the Interior [we are assuming a world in which this position still exists as of this writing].
Oh, but there is a SKELETON! *GASP* For Ella and her hubby have been doing the nasty on government time on government property!
Ugh.
See, this is the kind of problem that might have been a problem thirty years ago. Heck, maybe even twenty years ago. Now? Good luck finding someone who would give a shit. Trump and every member of Trump’s cabinet violate worse than this on a daily basis. There was a time when we cared about minor abuse of public money. Now? Good luck getting anybody to get Clarence Thomas to justify millions of dollatrs in dark money influence with more than a shrug. And I sorta like how this “scandal” was handled in the movie; I just don’t think there’s anything that could have been leveraged from such a minor violation. And such, in turn, makes me believe writer/director James L. Brooks has gone out of his way to fabricate flaws in his heroine rather than writing her with genuine ones.
So in this critical period of gubernatorial advancement and press scrutiny, Ella McCay turns to … her flaky younger brother, the kid who couldn’t make her inauguration … because blood is thicker than slaughter. Ok, movie, maybe one can get away with this in a small state, Maybe? This whole thing strikes me a fantasy of: “What would it be like if we lived in a universe in which AOC never had to win elections or talk to the public?”
Fantasy aside, there are some story lines that work here, and some that do not. The one involving brother Casey and his would-be girlfriend Susan (Ayo Edebiri) is especially disturbing as if Brooks himself came up with the outcome he wanted and literally rolled dice to come up with how to get there, which astute movie-goers might note is how the ending of (James L. Brooks “masterpiece”) As Good As It Gets feels.
With the exception of Kumail Nanjiani -who has a very small role here- every man in the film comes 
off as both needy and pushy at the same time, which is a horrible condition. Yeah, of course Ella is something of an emotional wreck; can you blame her? Here’s the $64,000 question: Do you legitimately want this emotional Trainwreck as your governor? I don’t need all of my politicians to be girl scouts. I would ask them to act legally -especially on the big stuff- and treat the office with dignity. What they do -legally- behind the scenes I would assume is more muddled. TBH, I don’t think a purist politician can accomplish anything worth accomplishing.
Let me bottom line this – if there were no pretense here, just a normal film you caught by accident, Ella McCay is almost acceptable, if wobbly. You get a nice performance out of Jamie Lee Curtis, and possibly a breakthrough one from Emma Mackey. But in Oscar terms, this film is crap. It should not discussed among the best films of the year in any way, shape, or form. It has all the problems of As Good As It Gets on steroids, and doesn’t conclude with even an ounce of the same satisfaction.
There once was a politician named Ella
Who governed beneath an umbrella
When called out on orals
She still kept her morals
Which is nice, fails the test, smell-a
Rated PG-13, 115 Minutes
Director: James L. Brooks
Writer: James L. Brooks
Genre: Oscar baiting
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Emma Mackey fans
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Jack Lowden fans
