Ella McCay: James L. Brooks’ 15-Year Comeback Is a Misfire

James L. Brooks is back behind the camera for the first time in 15 years, and I really wanted this one to land. The guy made Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News, As Good As It Gets, and helped get The Simpsons off the ground. But the same streak that gave us Spanglish (great Adam Sandler performance, messy movie) and How Do You Know (Jack Nicholson’s last screen role, and not a good note to go out on) continues. Ella McCay is rough. Like, worst-of-the-bunch rough.

What the movie is trying to do

Set in 2008 on purpose - we’ll get to why - Ella McCay follows a 34-year-old lieutenant governor, Ella (Emma Mackey), who suddenly has to step up when her mentor, Governor Bill (Albert Brooks), heads to Washington for a cabinet gig. Before she even takes the oath, she’s juggling a potential career-killer of a scandal, an insecure husband, Ryan (Jack Lowden), an estranged chaos-agent of a dad (Woody Harrelson), and the only steady presence in her orbit, her aunt (Jamie Lee Curtis), who basically functions as her anchor.

"The time before we all hated each other."

That line comes from the film’s narrator (Julie Kavner) and it explains why the story lives in 2008 - fewer political landmines. It’s the sharpest line in the whole thing, and also a reminder of how far the rest of the movie misses the moment.

Why it does not work

The entire tone feels like it teleported in from another century. Even if this had opened 20 years ago, it would have felt old-fashioned; in 2025, the whiskers are practically brushing the screen. Mackey - a genuine up-and-comer with Greta Gerwig’s Narnia on her horizon - is stuck playing a politician so relentlessly sunny and naive that her rise is impossible to buy. There is a scene where she gasps because her brother smokes weed, followed by her getting high in a way that plays like a cartoon sketch - think the broad stoner gags in Mel Brooks’ History of the World: Part I - not anything resembling reality.

That’s the movie in a nutshell: false upbeat vibes pasted over behavior that should read very differently. Ella is written as a flawless, sugar-sweet heroine, like someone lifted from a Doris Day vehicle, which leaves Mackey charming but stranded. Jamie Lee Curtis fares a bit better as the warm surrogate mom, basically a gentler riff on Shirley MacLaine in Terms of Endearment, but the script gives her only sweetness and support to play.

The characters who break the spell - in a bad way

• Woody Harrelson as Ella’s dad: The film wants him to be a lovably irresponsible rogue. On screen, he reads as borderline unhinged. We even see him flirting with women at his wife’s funeral in flashback, presented as a cheeky character beat. It is not.
• Jack Lowden as Ryan, Ella’s husband: He may be the most unpleasant screen spouse I have seen since Eric Roberts in Star 80. The second Ella’s star rises, he turns insecure and slimy, scheming in ways that make you question how Ella - repeatedly described as brilliant - didn’t clock this in 18 years together. The role seems written to have a sheen of charm; Lowden plays it without any.
• Those flashbacks: A lot of the movie lives in them, which means the 35-year-old Lowden and 29-year-old Mackey spend time playing 16-year-olds. It looks exactly as awkward as it sounds.
• Spike Fearn and Ayo Edebiri as Ella’s brother, Casey, and his ex: Their subplot eats up surprising real estate, culminating in a reunion scene whose words would sound creepy in any other movie but here are served up as adorably heartfelt.

The two who walk away clean

Kumail Nanjiani shows up as the genuinely decent state trooper on Ella’s security detail, and every time he appears, you wish the film recalibrated around him. In a smarter version of this story, he’s the lead. And Albert Brooks is the one performer who actually gets to bite. His Governor Bill is acid-tongued but ultimately kind, a part that feels like it could have been designed with Jack Nicholson in mind. Albert delivers the kind of snap and wit that reminds you what James L. Brooks used to do better than almost anyone.

The bottom line

Fifteen years away, and instead of a comeback, we get a time-capsule misfire that someone should have steered Brooks away from. Expect critics to circle. It’s the kind of film that makes you wince while you are watching it. For a filmmaker with that résumé, that stings to say, but here we are.

Verdict: 4/10 - Not good.