Review of Ella McCay, directed by James L. Brooks

If you’re new here, and stumbled upon this blog through the mythical powers of the Internet, welcome! I know a lot of visitors to my website are people who randomly come upon this website through search engines like Google, but I also do have a lot of visitors who come back. Regardless: my name is Ashley, and I started this blog in order to keep track of everything I’m coming across in the world.

I feel like a lot of my blog introductions, especially when it comes to movies, have been lamenting on the fact I don’t have a ton of time lately. I used to work as a film critic (which, in fact, was so incredibly underpaid that I now make more off of this blog’s display ads than I ever did publishing anywhere else), and then when I was in graduate school I was writing a lot about film, so I used to watch so many movies.

But now I work an 8-5, come home, and then doom scroll my evenings away instead of watching the movies I used to love so dearly. And recently I realized I want to stop doing that, so I’ve set limits on my phone and am fully prepared to sit back and watch more movies and read more books in order to feed my brain.

I feel like I’m starting a lot of blog posts off like this lately, but basically I originally wanted to see Ella McCay when it came out in theaters. I have an AMC Theater subscription, called A List, which means, for my non-American friends out there, that I can go to the movies up to four times a week for a really cheap monthly fee. If you don’t go more than twice you don’t get your money’s worth, but for me I go so often that I cram in my worth.

However because I had started my job around the same time this came out, I didn’t get to see it. When I saw it on streaming one day I decided to watch it, which was a solid idea for what was otherwise a boring night in.

Let’s get into the review!

Suddenly thrust into the position of governor of the state, Ella McCay has to learn to balance her personal affairs with her public ones.

Set in 2008, our main character in this movie is Ella McCay, who, after being told her mentor and boss is resigning, finds herself in the position of being the new mayor in town. Her political career has had its ups and downs getting to this point, but Ella is ambitious and ready to tackle her new role. She has fourteen months before time is up, leading to her wanting to make her mark before departing.

We learn that a reporter is actively blackmailing her though, as she had sex with her husband below the government building in a vacant apartment. Legally, that’s considering government property and the misuse of it, so that’s actually on her.

When at her aunt’s bar one day, Ella meets her father Eddie. She’s been estranged from him for years after he cheated on her mother, but he’s here today because of his new girlfriend. She told him to reconnect with his children, but Ella wants absolutely nothing to do with this man right now. He never apologized to her mother, who’s now dead, which leads to her resentment.

At Ella’s inauguration, tensions run higher when feathers are ruffled because who wasn’t thanks—which includes her own husband. Ella decides to focus on a bill that would help mothers who are expecting or recently gave birth, creating a social support system for them and their kids, but she discovers her husband Ryan is actually the one who told the press about their sexual escapades.

Ella goes to her aunt Helen for advice, who tells her to leave him, as he’s going to disrupt her career. She then goes to visit her brother Casey, who apparently hasn’t left his apartment in a year. He stopped going outside after a situation with his girlfriend Susan, but after connecting with Ella, he tells her that their father has been calling his phone constantly, and so has his girlfriend.

Before she leaves, Ella tells Casey he should go talk to Susan, especially since he’s so hung up over her. On the political side of things, Ella has a press conference where she pretty much admits to the scandal and says she will give restitution for what she has done. This improves her ratings.

Ella then confronts her father and tells him to stop calling her brother, and he apologizes for what he has done. She asks him he cheated on her mother when she was dying, and he only responds with a “not really.” At the same time, Casey goes to meet Susan at her apartment, which is such an awkward encounter, but it works and they start getting back together.

Ryan then goes up to Ella. He’s angry about how she had the press conference before saying anything to him, then reveals he bribed the reporter. Ella clocks how this is extortion, then Ryan demands a spot on her staff or he’ll leave and start ruining her name. She doesn’t back down, then he holds a press conference where he talks about their separation, blames her for the failure of their marriage, then says she bribed the reporter.

Ella was already unpopular in her party before this, and after Ryan’s press conference officials show up to Helen’s bar and demand she either resign or be censured. Ella then threatens to run again as an independent and take away votes from the party, which leads to the majority leader to agree to her bill for mothers and another one for dental care for kids.

The tradeoff is that she has to resign, and Ella does so only a few days after being inaugurated as mayor. Her father asks her if she accepted his apology, and she responds with a “not really” and moves on.

Helen goes to the police about Ryan and he’s arrested, while Casey continues dating Susan and begins reentering the world. Ella then starts a nonprofit for impoverished families, realizing she can do so much more outside of the world of government.

Overall Thoughts

I would describe this as an ambitious film, and while I would love to see more movies about women in power and grappling with their personal lives, I don’t know if this one struck the right chord with me. I enjoyed Ella as a character and agree with the ending of the film in the sense where one can make more impact outside of government, but something about this movie falls flat for me.

It might be that there’s simply too much going on in her life, which could actually be too realistic in some ways. I can’t pinpoint it exactly at this moment of time, but I feel like that I wanted more from this movie and that my expectations were a little higher. I also wanted to know more about characters like Nash and Helen, as they only exist to move the plot forward in some ways.

I did enjoy watching the movie overall and would recommend it if it interests you. If not, maybe this is one to skip for later.

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