An idealistic young woman juggles her family and work life in a comedy about the people you love and how to survive them.

They don’t make movies like this anymore, and that’s probably a good thing. It feels stuck in some nebulous 80s sensibility where charm was enough to carry a movie. Ella McCay (the movie and character) has charm to spare, but little else.

The movie’s title character is the lieutenant governor of the state where she grew up (the movie goes to great lengths to never say where it is), who is poised to become the big boss when the current governor (Albert Brooks) is tapped for a position in the white house. Set in the early 2000s before politics was so polarizing (at least it posits that), McCay faces a personal scandal as she’s about to take office. She’s the kind of woman who comes from the Aaron Sorkin world of making a female character have depth by making her bad at her job and/or clumsy. She’s married to an asshole (Jack Lowden) with no redeeming qualities, but they’ve been together since high school and still have sex all the time and the possible breakup of their marriage is met with a shrug. Her brother (Spike Fearn) is an agoraphobic day trader, who hasn’t left his house in years until he just decides to walk over to the house of his ex (Ayo Edebiri) to try and win her back. Her main constant in life is her Aunt Helen (Jamie Lee Curtis, being every Jamie Lee Curtis trope) who is just as folksy as all get out. Woody Harrelson, Julie Kavner, Kumail Nanjiani, Becky Ann Baker fill out the overstuffed cast where everyone is a cartoon, but gosh they’re charming.

Written and directed by James L. Brooks who was the mastermind behind great films like Terms of Endearment (which netted him three Oscars), Broadcast News and As Good As it Gets, Ella McCay falls flat from the first moments and never gets back, which is such a shame from someone who clearly hasn’t got a fourth fantastic film in him (his TV work is equally seminal with The Simpsons, the Mary Tyler Moore Show, Taxi, Lou Grant and more owing their legacy to him).

Albert Brooks is delightful in his too brief appearances, but I don’t know that there was anything anyone could do to give this film some life.

Jonathan’s grade – D