In Ella McCay, the titular protagonist reads the definition of “trauma” from the dictionary, out loud, in the movie’s first five minutes. That should’ve been an early indication that things were going off the rails. The film was directed by James L. Brooks, the 85-year-old legend, who’s made some great movies like Terms of Endearment and Broadcast News, while also co-creating The Simpsons. It’s his first feature in 15 years, since How Do You Know in 2010, which is mostly forgettable, aside from serving as Jack Nicholson’s last movie role to date.
Ella McCay is much worse than forgettable. Brooks’ movies have always been about the messiness of human relationships, and this one is too, but it’s the movie itself that’s the mess. It’s hard to think of a film this year that makes as many bizarre, inexplicable choices. Brooks’ film stars British actress Emma Mackey, a 34-year-old woman who is the lieutenant governor of a state. She ascends to the governorship when her predecessor (Albert Brooks) is appointed to the cabinet by president-elect Barack Obama. The first half of Ella McCay occasionally flashes back to her childhood, where her father (Woody Harrelson) was a disgraced philanderer, leaving Ella with a distrust of men that’s bled into her marriage to Ryan (Jack Lowden). Jamie Lee Curtis is on hand as her aunt, an ever-present confidante who shouts constantly.
Once she’s governor, Ella has to deal with her father’s sudden reappearance, legislative leaders who don’t trust her, and also the biggest flop of a sex scandal I’ve ever heard of, real or fictional. Brooks’ best film, Broadcast News, was a romantic comedy/love triangle set within the network news business. It had something very specific to say about that business, a posture that’s held up well in the ensuing four decades. Can a guy who’s a couple of years older than Joe Biden direct a trenchant movie about American politics? It’s not looking that way.
Ella McCay is set in the world of politics, but has almost nothing to say about it. Is the point that women in politics are treated unfairly? They are, but the film doesn’t even try to make that case. In real life, if an attractive 34-year-old woman suddenly became the governor of a state, she’d be an instant national media star, on magazine covers everywhere, especially in 2008 when magazines still mattered.
We see Ella pushing something called “The Moms Bill,” a free-counseling-for-new-moms mandate that the film treats as the most controversial proposal in the history of politics. It’s worth noting that the advertising for the film makes it look like a cute romcom that makes no mention of anything political. The film’s big idea is that having a screwed up upbringing with untrustworthy parents will screw up one’s relationships as an adult, and that’s not a new insight.
There’s also a subplot, featuring Ella’s anxious brother trying to ask out a woman (Ayo Edebiri) that’s less believable than Ella’s plot. That her brother’s making millions running a sports gambling service, years before sports gambling became legal, would appear potentially more embarrassing to Ella’s prospects than the sex scandal part.
Why is it set in 2008? I’ve no idea, unless Brooks was really tickled by the idea of having BlackBerrys in the movie. The marital political material is more in line with the Clinton era. Ella McCay features talented performers, doing some of the worst work of their careers. Harrelson, even in bad material, is usually a bright spot, but not here, while Rebecca Hall, as Ella’s mother, is in the movie for about two minutes.
Curtis is atrocious as a one-note character, while Becky Ann Baker plays Ella’s mother-in-law as a ridiculous Lady Macbeth figure, whispering in the ear of Ella’s husband to encourage a heel turn. And not even Albert Brooks can do much with his character (although since Brooks played a governor’s campaign staffer in Taxi Driver in 1976, he’s finally been promoted to governor, almost 50 years later). Also, Julie Kavner, the voice of Marge Simpson, is the narrator, and it’s impossible not to hear her as Marge.
A funny viral video recently surfaced of the cast of the movie re-enacting the jingle of Gracie Films, Brooks’ production company, which pops up at the end of every Simpsons episode. It’s not much, but still more witty than anything in the actual movie.