Ella McCay

James L. Brooks returns to the big screen – and to his old form – with an incisive, witty satire on family and politics.

The real McCays: Jamie Lee Curtis and Emma Mackey
Image courtesy of Walt Disney Studios.

It’s been fifteen years since James L. Brooks directed his last film, which is a crying shame. The doyen of the smart-mouthed emotional workout, Brooks made his name on TV before garnering armfuls of glittering prizes for Terms of Endearment (1983), Broadcast News (1987) and As Good as It Gets (1997). In the interim he’s been involved with The Simpsons and producing other people’s work, until Ella McCay beckoned. Smart, beautiful and motivated, Ella recalls the outspoken, can-do heroines of Hollywood’s golden era, albeit handicapped by some 21st century emotional baggage. With Emma Mackey slipping into her high heels, she is a maelstrom of conflicting objections and objectives. Emma Mackey is terrific, building on her work as Maeve in Sex Education and Emily Brontë in Emily, seamlessly taking on the trench coat of a driven legal eagle in small-town America. The year is 2008, Ella is 34-years-old and she is on the verge of becoming state governor…

The film has barely started when the reassuring embrace of James L. Brooks’ high-calibre imagination kicks into gear. The legendary Julie Kavner stares at the camera and in her inimitable, throaty tone announces, “Hi, I’m the narrator. I’m here to provide facts about Ella McCay. I’ve worked for her ever since she finished law school. So, I’m not exactly neutral. I’m nuts about her.” And we’re off.

With the aid of some digital reimagining, we see Ella as a schoolgirl confronting her father in the midst of a more than awkward family showdown. There’s her younger brother Casey, whom she’s trying to protect, her mother (Rebecca Hall) and her redoubtable aunt Helen (Jamie Lee Curtis). Ella’s father Eddie McCay (Woody Harrelson) has been caught cheating again and you could cut the atmosphere with a letter opener. Tapping into the raw nerves of family trauma, Brooks rips off the scabs of familiar wounds. As Eddie takes his leave, Helen reaches out to him and grabs him in her arms: “I’ll never forgive you. I love you. Call me for anything.” And Jamie Lee Curtis nails it.

James L. Brooks has sort of cheated in his film career by surrounding himself with the best actors around (Shirley MacLaine, Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt have won Oscars by his hand). Here, he’s landed another superlative troupe, and Jamie Lee Curtis gives the best performance of her career as a wise, compassionate woman who cannot but speak her mind. As Ella’s boss, the incumbent governor Bill, Albert Brooks makes every line count, recalling his association with the director on Broadcast News. And steering the ship is Emma Mackey, hoisting herself up another rung in a short but remarkable career. She hits all her notes with poise, careening from kookie and smart to passionate and unhinged, but constantly presenting a character we can but root for.

Even as the momentum tails off in the third quarter, we are already invested enough to see her through to a potentially messy end, through all the tears and the laughter. The one-liners fly like buckshot and while Brooks provides us with smart characters saying smart things, Ella might just be too bright for her britches. As Governor Bill advises her, “you have to make dumb people feel less dumb.” And, an exasperated Aunt Helen: “Stop being yourself!” But then there’s nobody like Ella McCay, and while she navigates the obstacles of bureaucracy and media intrusion, she is determined to make a difference. In an age of political disillusionment, the idealism and fervour of Ella McCay is a tonic we all need right now.

JAMES CAMERON-WILSON

Cast: Emma Mackey, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jack Lowden, Kumail Nanjiani, Ayo Edebiri, Spike Fearn, Julie Kavner, Albert Brooks, Woody Harrelson, Rebecca Hall, Joey Brooks, Becky Ann Baker, Charlie Talbert, and the voice of Tracey Ullman. 

Dir James L. Brooks, Pro James L. Brooks, Richard Sakai, Julie Ansell and Jennifer Brooks, Screenplay James L. Brooks, Ph Robert Elswit, Pro Des Richard Toyon, Ed Tracey Wadmore-Smith, Music Hans Zimmer, Costumes Matthew Pachtman and Ann Roth, Dialect coach Francie Brown. 

Gracie Films-Walt Disney Studios.
114 mins. USA. 2025. UK and US Rel: 12 December 2025. Cert. 12A.