ELLA McCAY: 2 STARS. “the most dysfunctional thing about the story is the script.”
SYNOPSIS: In “Ella McCay,” a new dramedy written and directed by sitcom legend James L. Brooks, and now playing in theatres, the idealistic 34-year-old titular character must juggle family, marriage and responsibility when she becomes governor of her state.
CAST: Emma Mackey, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jack Lowden, Kumail Nanjiani, Ayo Edebiri, Julie Kavner, Spike Fearn, Rebecca Hall, Albert Brooks, and Woody Harrelson. Written and directed by James L. Brooks.
REVIEW: A mix of family drama and political underdog tale, “Ella McCay” is a kernel of a good idea with a good cast wrapped up in an over-stuffed melodrama.
British actress Emma Mackey plays all-America go getter Ella McCay. She scored top marks in class, became a lawyer, married her high school sweetheart and unexpectedly became governor of her state when the sitting governor (Albert Brooks) is offered a cabinet position in the federal government.
As she works to secure free children’s dental services, among other pet programs, family drama threatens to undo everything she’s worked to achieve.
In a story about a dysfunctional family, the most dysfunctional thing about the story is the script, written by James L. Brooks, who also directs.
Brooks specializes in television shows (“The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and “Taxi”) and movies (“As Good as It Gets” and “Broadcast News”) that effortlessly flip flop between humor and heartache. Those elements are all present in “Ella McCay,” but they feel strained and unfocussed, like puzzle pieces that don’t fit together. The idiosyncratic script veers all over the place, leaping from one contrived situation to another, never finding an overall tone to tie the episodic story together.
As a result “Ella McCay” makes for baffling viewing.
Despite handing in a committed performance as the title character, Emma Mackey battles against overwritten dialogue in a movie that wants to be a character-driven look at life, love and loyalty, but is, instead, a collection of feels, raked up like fallen leaves in the fall, and thrown haphazardly at the screen.
Like the title character, the movie “Ella McCay” wants it all, but succeeds only in proving that sometimes, more is less.
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