ELLA MCCAY (DISNEY+) (2025)

SYNOPSIS: An idealistic young woman juggles her family and work life in a comedy about the people you love and how to survive them.

MOVIE REVIEW:

It took famed director and producer James L. Brooks almost 15 years to make another movie. His last feature was the Jack Nicholson misfire How Do You Know, released back in 2010. Not that he actually needs the money, since his production house still churns out the ever-lucrative The Simpsons.

Anyway, Ella McCay is, well, about Ella McCay (Emma Mackey), an ambitious and idealistic young woman who suddenly finds herself promoted to governor after her mentor, Bill (Albert Brooks), accepts a cabinet position.

Ella’s life, it seems, isn’t exactly glowing. She has an estranged, womanising father, Eddie (Woody Harrelson), and her mother, Claire (Rebecca Hall), died when she was young. Thankfully, there’s her supportive aunt Helen (Jamie Lee Curtis), who backs her in every way possible. Her husband Ryan (Jack Lowden), whose family owns a pizza chain in town, on the other hand, is anything but supportive.

The movie tries to play like a witty screwball comedy on the surface, cramming in a bunch of dysfunctional characters all fighting for screen time. Everyone slips in and out of Ella’s life, and somehow we’re expected to care about their involvement. So is it supposed to be a political satire, with all those long speeches about making the world a better place and all that? Not really. Is it a rom-com mixed with family drama? Not that either.

Instead, the whole thing is stuffed with inconsequential subplots, including Ella’s agoraphobic younger brother (Spike Fearn) and her bodyguard/driver (Kumail Nanjiani), who looks like he might turn into a love interest if the movie drags on for another hour. None of these threads add much, they just make the film feel longer than it already is.

And Ella herself isn’t particularly interesting. Sure, she wants to build a better world with limited resources, but she’s constantly weighed down by her past. For a movie named after her, she never feels like someone we can truly root for or care about. There’s nothing in Brooks’ script that really grabs our attention. To put it bluntly, it’s a deliberately long drama with nothing exceptional to say.

Sad to say, it’s yet another misfire for the 85-year-old Brooks. It’s hard to tell what he was even going for with Ella McCay. In the end, it’s a misguided, plodding film that’s probably best avoided.

MOVIE RATING:

Review by Linus Tee