Spun out of finest gossamer threads of life’s zig-zaggy pastiche Ella McCay has the distinctly endearing stamp of writer-director James L Brooks’ vision of a fractured but unbroken family.
The enchanting, melancholic, mirthful, meditative drama fills the heart with gratitude and love. Not that it’s one of those schmaltzy dramas where the characters hug and weep all the time. The cutting edge runs through the engaging drama, right from the start, when we see Ella McCay (curiously played by Emma McCay, and no, she wasn’t chosen for her similar name) confront her philandering father when they are all getting ready for an important outing.
This sort of foot-in-the-door crisis impels the narrative forward as we see Ella make her way through domestic and parliamentary politics to become the governor of the state.
Though outwardly a “political film”, Ella McCay is more about the politics of marriage and relationships. Ella’s troubled equation with her father (Woody Harrelson at his best) has its roots in her unhappy mother. Ella’s kid brother, Casey, grows up into an oversensitive, anxious teenager, played with brilliant befuddlement by young Spike Fearn.
Casey’s reunion with his estranged girlfriend is one of the most tragicomic screen manifestations of love’s labours lost in recent years.
Almost every character is flawed, but (maybe therefore) unforgettable. The men are more flawed than the women. Ella’s father and her husband are pretty much trashy in their self-serving attitude, whereas her aunt and even her administrative assistant, played brilliantly by two legendary actresses, Jamie Lee Curtis and Julie Kavner, are women of substance with a heart and conscience.
I don’t know how much of its shine Ella McCay owes to its gorgeous gallery of characters and the actors playing them. Writer-director James L Brooks last directed How Do You Know? ten years ago. He really shouldn’t take so long. It is a criminal offence.
