Ella McCay

I must admit I liked this film anyway. Despite its oddness and feeling of being overstuffed and underbaked, I fell for Ella McCay and her quirky sidekicks and offbeat villains. Call me sentimental—you wouldn’t be wrong. As the movie unspools, everything felt so familiar and comforting to me. Maybe it was the fact that it was directed by James L. Brooks, who directed

Broadcast News, Terms of Endearment, As Good as it Gets, and Spanglish, all very talky, character-driven films about somewhat neurotic, flawed, and somehow adorable characters. I adored all those films. (Brooks, 85, last directed a film 15 years ago.)

Or maybe it was because the narrator was Marge Simpson, or rather, Julie Kavner, icon of 1970s TV and her stint as Brenda Morgenstern in Rhoda, who voices Marge Simpson. I don’t even watch The Simpsons, yet Kavner’s gravelly voice was as familiar to me as that of a friend. She also plays Estelle, executive assistant to the new policy wonk, 34-year-old governor of an unknown state, titular character Ella McCay (played, not un-confusingly, by Emma Mackey).

Mackey was unknown to me before this film, and I kept thinking, “a star is born.” She should always do talky, character-driven films about somewhat neurotic, flawed, and somehow adorable characters. As Ella, she is dealt a bad hand of cards going into the action, which entails her suddenly being sworn in as governor of the state she was (the film repeatedly tells us) born and raised in. She was the dutiful lieutenant governor for several years when her boss was offered a position in an incoming president’s cabinet. All Ella cares about is helping people, and she lives and breathes policy, which does not endear her to her fellow politicians. She is guileless and obsessed with passing a bill to help new mothers and their children, but her social skills are lacking, and she has zero finesse.

Back to her bad hand: Ella’s mother died when she was in her teens, we learn in flashbacks. Her serially philandering father (Woody Harrelson) neglects her and her little brother, Casey (Spike Fearn), who grows up to be an agoraphobic who can barely function. Their only ally is their wonderful aunt Helen (Jamie Lee Curtis), who loves and supports Ella through it all.

Meanwhile, her husband begins to feel that his ego is not being sufficiently addressed when his wife is suddenly the governor and he is … nowhere near that level of society. When a fake scandal threatens everything she has worked for, Ella must throw herself into righting the ship, politically and personally.

Her allies include Aunt Helen, Estelle, and her kind bodyguard, played by the always winsome Kumail Nanjiani.

Christian viewers might wish that Ella had a rock on which to stand, instead of the shifting sands of disappointing people who are supposed to love her. If anyone ever needed to pray the wisdom prayer in James 1, it's Ella. This void gave the film a slightly hollow feel, which didn’t help the other issues described above. Yet, as I said, I liked it. I liked Ella and was rooting for her to get out of her intense head for five minutes, and maybe even get out of her own way. I cheered for her to find a love that would not let her go. (Gracie Films. Rated PG-13 for strong language, some sexual material, and drug content.)