One cannot create a universally liked dish, combined with multiple ingredients, trying to evoke every flavour at once. James L Brooks’ Ella McCay is an attempt at such a dish, with a heady mix of comedy, drama, romance, feel-good, and politics. What we get instead is an incoherent and confusing mishmash. The film follows the titular character, played by Emma Mackey, as her past clashes with her present, creating a series of erroneous situations that change her life.
Ella McCay is a tough woman. Having to deal with the trauma of her parents’ divorce, she takes on the added stress of becoming the one person who has to solve everything for everyone around her. But does that hinder her life? No. Only the people around her do. Her estranged, womanising dad wants to make amends but refuses to take responsibility. Her husband (Jack Lowden) is an opportunist who ends up creating a claustrophobic marriage for her. The film has enough material to complete a basic arc for their dynamics with Ella, but there is effort in portraying Ella’s journey.
While Ella has to deal with a snowballing family situation, she also has to face the pressures of being the youngest governor of the USA, at the age of 34, something the film never fails to reiterate. Ella’s objective of improving the situation of others extends to her career in politics. But without proper rhyme or reason, her character is shown as someone ignored by everyone in the government. Ella’s passion for the job is conveniently highlighted whenever the story demands it. While the director attempts to create a wholesome mood by setting the film in 2008 and calling it “the last time when we liked each other”, he largely ignores this aspect as the plot moves forward.
If the film falters in writing, it is supported by its performances. Mackey, with all her charm, ensures that the film does not become entirely dull. Paired with scene partners like Jamie Lee Curtis and Kumail Nanjiani, she elevates underwritten scenes. Lowden and Spike Fearn, too, commit completely to making their flawed characters real and relatable. Ella McCay ultimately misses its mark to be a breezy, feel-good film. With our increasing appetite for nostalgia, if the mid-2000s are reminisced upon in the future, as the 1980s are being revisited now, then Ella McCay might find its audience then. But this possibility rests on the lofty assumption that anybody would even remember this film in the future.