It's been 15 years since James L Brooks released the middling Reese Witherspoon romcom How Do You Know after decades of delighting audiences with such classics as Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News, As Good As it Gets, and, of course, The Simpsons.
Now with his big-screen comeback, Ella McCay, it certainly feels like he's stuck in that early noughts era. Literally in fact, as the political comedy-drama takes place during 2008 as it follows the eponymous lead, played by Sex Education’s Emma Mackey, an idealistic lieutenant governor for an unnamed state readying to take over from her mentor, Governor Bill (Albert Brooks).
As the narrator Estelle (Julie Kavner), her elderly secretary, cloyingly tells us Ella is 34 and the third youngest person to hold her position, establishing her as an ethically upstanding citizen in flashbacks to her teens where she aces a paper on morality in politics and contends with the fallout of her father’s (Woody Harrelson) workplace affairs.
Mackey earnestly delivers the sort of Obama-era ‘Yes we can’ politician who wants to make meaningful change, such as get funding for pre-schools and ‘tooth tutors’ for kids. But it puts her at odds with the political establishment, which finds her self-righteousness annoying and is more focused on campaign funding to keep their powerful positions. This plotline somewhat resonates despite its banal, cluttered framework.
James L Brooks feels like he’s stuck in his early noughts era
The issue is that Ella is all a bit too perfect and lacks the edge or complexity to make her an engaging enough character to spend two hours with. Her only fault seems to be that she lacks the charm to be a leader yet even when a low-stakes marital scandal threatens her career, involving wrongful use of government property with her status-hungry husband Ryan (Jack Lowden), she still proves a popular figure.
Jamie Lee Curtis as Ella’s overzealous Aunt Helen and Brooks’s curt governor provide some comic relief and poignancy. When Bill offers some sage advice on personal appeal to Ella, telling her: ‘You have to make dumb people feel less dumb,’ it serves as a sly nod at how the current White House came into power. Yet a romantic subplot with Ella’s younger, agoraphobic brother Casey (Spike Fearn) takes away from a more rigorous exploration of the political dynamics that inhibit the ability of well-meaning politicians, especially female politicians, to make effective change.
Ella McCay is just a little too easy listening – background noise rather than a banger.
In UK and Ireland cinemas Fri Dec 12.