"Perhaps you've seen the poster for Ella McCay and marveled at its title character, a woman who's clearly trying to Have It All-by which I mean she's futzing with a high heel while wearing a sensible overcoat and dress. James L. Brooks's new film, his first in 15 years, feels like a throwback to the kind of light dramedy Hollywood doesn't make anymore, a movie where the stakes are no higher than finding a balance among work, love, and family."
"The answer is no, but on a technicality: This strange, shaggy movie is actually a period piece, tellingly set in 2008, a time of both hopeful promise and material misery for Americans. It follows Ms. McCay (played by Emma Mackey), a driven, idealistic 34-year-old lieutenant governor of an unnamed state who finds herself having one of the wackiest weeks of her life. Her boss, a beloved, aging governor (Albert Brooks), is accepting a position in President-Elect Barack Obama's Cabinet, giving Ella his job."
James L. Brooks's new film resembles a throwback light dramedy framed as a period piece set in 2008, a year of hopeful promise and material hardship. The narrative follows 34-year-old lieutenant governor Ella McCay as she unexpectedly inherits the governorship while confronting a husband’s scandal, an agoraphobic brother, and the return of a philandering father. The screenplay both praises Ella and catalogs her predicaments. The film’s narrator, her secretary Estelle (Julie Kavner), directly addresses the camera and functions as a stand-in voice. The movie frames Millennial optimism against Boomer shortcomings but feels too shaggy to rekindle earlier genre magic.
Read at The Atlantic
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