Ella McCay
James L. Brooks' swan song is unfortunately more of an ugly duckling honk. There are elements of a wonderful film here, just mismatched and badly stuck together.
I was absolutely thrilled when I learned writer/director James L. Brooks was making another movie. At age 85, with a closetful of awards for movies like “Terms of Endearment,” “As Good As It Gets” and “Broadcast News” — not to mention his TV work like “The Simpsons” — he has nothing left to prove. His last picture, the uneven “How Do You Know,” was 15 years ago. It was not presumptuous to assume he was done.
Well, if he wasn’t before, he is now.
“Ella McCay” is a heartbreaking disappointment. There are elements of a wonderful film here, just mismatched and badly stuck together. It’s less of a swan song and more of an ugly duckling honk.
It stars Emma Mackey, one of the most promising young actresses around today (“Sex Education,” “Hot Milk”) as the title character, who’s made in the mold of some of Brooks’ other iconic female characters. Ella is brilliant and driven young woman, a do-gooder who finds herself thrust into the role of governor of her state at just age 34. She then proceeds to make such a disastrous mess of things, people will tell their grandkids about it.
Like Holly Hunter’s Jane Craig in “Broadcast News” or Debra Winger’s Emma Greenway in “Terms,” Ella is a delightful but maddening mix of virtues and failings. She’s crazy smart, the sort of woman who was writing passionate political papers in high school. And she’s an old-school bleeding heart, naive enough to believe that it’s government’s job to help people who need it most.
She’s also completely thumbless when it comes to handling people, tending to come across as a scold and snobby egghead. This is in contrast to her mentor, Governor Bill (Albert Brooks), a people-pleaser who knows what it takes to get things done — including doing nothing if it means rocking the boat.
“We’re all fools here,” is his go-to disarming joke.
Ella’s basically a hot mess, the product of a very messy family. Her dad (Woody Harrelson) blew up the clan when she was 16, his serial philandering costing his high-profile job. She finished high school under the care of her loving but caustic Aunt Helen (Jamie Lee Curtis), who’s still her best friend and confidante after her mother passed.
Her kid brother, Casey (Spike Fearn), is also smart but a total shut-in, having not left his house for more than a year after a painful breakup. And Ella’s husband, Ryan (Jack Lowden), is something of a pushy jerk who thinks his wife getting the governor’s chair means he’s now a bigshot, too.
Everything comes to a head in the space of just a few days. Bill learns he is being picked to be the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, resigning his post and making Ella the new governor. Her dad turns up out of the blue working some kind of program foisted on him by his latest lady love, insisting that Ella forgive him for his “misdeeds.” Casey seems on the edge of a total nervous breakdown.
Even worse, a brewing scandal threatens to take down her governorship when it’s barely started. It seems Ryan and Ella were using an empty suite in a government building for lunch “meetings” while trying to have a kid, and now some reporter has gotten hold of the story.
This nabs her the cheeky nickname “Little Miss Nooner,” though her poll numbers actually go up.
Mackey’s charming and neurotic as Ella, a woman of prodigious gifts who nevertheless has finds herself undercut by others, and her own self-doubt, all her life. Ryan appears supportive but is a striving opportunist. Casey is a reflection of her, his anxieties just worn more on the sleeve. Her dad is an un-self-aware ball of need. Even Aunt Helen’s protectiveness can sometimes wear more like an anchor than armor.
There’s just too much going on here. The heart of the movie is about Ella’s critical faults balanced against her desire to make the world a better place, and learning the hard way that you need to have some Governor Bill in you to make that happen. Brooks is such an amiable, amusing presence, I hated to see so little of him.
On the other side, the dynamic with Aunt Helen and Ella’s dad needed deeper probing. Helen can see that her brother is a profound disappointment, but still thinks he deserves another chance. And I wanted to find out more what prompted the old fellow to attempt amends now. As it is, he just shows up for a few cameo laugh lines.
It’s probably obnoxious for me to substitute my notions for those of one of the most celebrated TV and movie writers of the last half-century, but I think both Casey and Ryan needed to be written out of the film. They don’t come across as fleshed-out characters, just more problems that Ella has to face.
The script is still stuffed with all sorts of amusing little moments, quips and side characters. Julie Kavner plays Estelle, Ella’s secretary and major domo, who also introduces herself at the beginning as the narrator. Kumail Nanjiani turns up as the state trooper assigned to drive Ella around, who winds up being more of a friend to her than many who claim to be.
And Brooks’ skill is undiminished at dialogue that’s incredibly clever but actually feels like something a real person would say. A favorite is teenage Ella’s advice to young Casey to never feign knowledge to appear smarter or more confident: “The only way in the world you can not learn something is to pretend you already know it.”
It’s such a shame, really. “Ella McCay” has all the ingredients of another James L. Brooks winner, but feel put together all wrong, and with some extra throw-ins better left out.
To say it’s forgettable is actually a compliment. I cherish Brooks’ body of work so much this movie will be like Michael Jordan’s stint with the Wizards, a disappointing coda we’ll all just pretend didn’t happen.