“I can’t trust my brain right now,” says our hero, Ella, deep into James L. Brooks’ bafflingly disjointed, uneven, unfunny and illogical “Ella McCay.”
And finally, nearly two hours into a perplexing muddle of a storyline, we have some clarity of thought. No, dear, we want to tell Ella, played by the lovely Emma Mackey, who is truly the only reason to watch any of this. No, your brain is fine (and by the way, what a depressing line to put in the mouth of your most intelligent character — a hard-working woman in politics). It’s your script you can’t trust, Ella! Run away from it. Now.
It’s hard to understand how “Ella McCay,” the first original feature from writer-director Brooks in 15 years, goes so utterly haywire. Is this really the same mind that wrote the memorable “Broadcast News”? “Terms of Endearment”? “As Good As It Gets”? We get a bit of a hint in the studio’s press notes, which mention that Brooks began his script “without a specific storyline in mind.”
Hmm. Perhaps that (unintentionally) explains this tangle of half-baked characters and subplots — each more head-scratching than the next, but also boring — and an ending that’s unbelievable, by which we mean not believable. What’s even less believable is that smart supporting actors like Jamie Lee Curtis, Ayo Edebiri, Woody Harrelson and Rebecca Hall didn’t walk out in protest of a lack of coherence. (Well, actually, Hall is gone in a matter of minutes.)
The main action takes place over three days in 2008, in an unnamed state. An aggressively folksy Julie Kavner as narrator tells us Ella is a great person, and super-bright, and at 34, one of the youngest people to serve as lieutenant governor.
She’s also a moral compass — both in the dog-eat-dog world of politics, where she just wants to pass good laws that help good people — and in her messed-up family. This family includes her weaselly father (Harrelson, intermittently amusing) who, in a flashback to when Ella was 16, loses his job in a sexual harassment scandal.
Soon after, when Ella’s mother (Hall, wasted) tells her that Dad is moving the family to California, Ella insists on staying put, at her school. She’ll live with her loyal and loving Aunt Helen (Curtis), who runs — of course! — the diner next door.
Flash forward 18 years, and Ella is summoned by her governor boss (Albert Brooks). He tells her he’s in line for a Cabinet position, which means Ella would be interim governor. “You wouldn’t get this any other way,” he notes, helpfully,
There’s one prickly problem. Ella is enmeshed in scandal; she’s been having amorous relations, with her own husband, at lunchtime, in a room that’s technically state property. (Yep, this is the best scandal they could come up with.)
Also, there’s a reporter who knows this, and he’s trying to extort her in exchange for better access (to what, is unclear). Her husband is the one handling it. And so we flash back to high school to meet Ryan, who seems nice enough (but truly ridiculous as a high school student — there clearly was no de-aging budget).
Anyway, Ryan (Jack Lowden) is now poised to become the state’s first gentleman. We can see how Ella likes his easy good looks. But then, poof, he suddenly becomes a total jerk and we can’t believe Ella would even think to be married to such a cad. But there’s a lot here that we wouldn’t think would happen.
So Ella becomes governor. Yay! But Ryan is peeved to be sidelined. In a quickly abandoned subplot involving his mother, he threatens to leave Ella unless she allows him to co-govern. If only Ella would listen to Helen, who tells her, in advice that’s ignored, that Ryan is “a ticking time bomb in your life.” Which just might be the one decent line given to poor Curtis in the whole movie.
Then we have the strange story of Ella’s agoraphobic younger brother, Casey (Spike Fearn) and his former would-be girlfriend, Susan (Edebiri). In a long sequence that feels like it comes from nowhere, just like the subplot about the state troopers and the overtime — don’t ask! — Casey works up the courage to find Susan and ask her to be his girlfriend. The talented Edebiri almost makes your ticket price worthwhile — she’s adorable. But the scene is ludicrous.
Finally, somebody just says “this script is a mess.” Oh, wait — that’s just the scribble in my screening notebook.
Anyway, it all comes to a denouement in a confrontation with Ella’s political opponents. We won’t reveal the specifics, but soon after, when Ella and Helen have a screaming session in the living room — you know, just for fun — it’s tempting to join in.
Like them, we’re confused. We’re annoyed. And we’re not getting these two hours back.
“Ella McCay,” a 20th Century Studios release, has been rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association “for strong language, some sexual material and drug content.” Running time: 115 minutes. One star out of four.
