Ella McCay (M) – 115 minutes

You’re an intense, high achiever with a bright future, but a checkered back story.

With your big break comes the fallout of a bad decision.

That, in short, is the contention behind James L. Brooks’ (As Good As It Gets) dramatic comedy Ella McCay. 

It is 2008, in the middle of a recession.

Thirty-four-year-old Ella McCay (Emma Mackey) is the third youngest woman to hold the position of Lieutenant Governor of an unnamed state.

When her boss, the governor (Albert Brooks) – with whom she has a long history – is elevated to the Cabinet, she takes over from him. 

McCay has 14 months before the next election to make her mark.

But, the morally righteous McCay is made aware of a problem.

As Lieutenant Governor, she inadvertently misused a perk of her job.

She had regular lunchtime sex with her husband in a place designated specifically only for government business and a journalist has gotten hold of the story.

It is a situation bound to be seized upon by her political opponents.

McCay can scarcely believe how the journo got to hear the story in the first instance.

That has everything to do with her naïve husband, her childhood sweetheart Ryan (Jack Lowden).

So, is there trouble in paradise? You betcha there is. 

At the same time, McCay is dealing with a dysfunctional family.

When she was 16, her father Eddie (Woody Harrelson) was exposed as a serial womaniser, doing the dirty on her mother (Rebecca Hall), who subsequently died.

McCay, who ended up staying with her aunt Helen (Jamie Lee Curtis), with whom she is still close, has remained estranged from her dad.

Her brother, Casey (Spike Fearn), who she doted upon growing up, has some mental health challenges.

Misinterpreted signals saw him break up with the girl he was seeing and 13 months later he is still missing her and afraid of setting foot outside his front door.

The next three days will determine McCay’s fate.

James L. Brooks presents us with quirky, feel-good material.

It is quite a meaty role for Emma Mackey, who bears a similarity to Anne Hathaway at a similar age.

Mackey brings a driven construct to the pivotal role.

McCay’s ethical, bull at a gate approach, is too much for many of the other characters in the piece, but it is one from which she doesn’t resile.

As Helen, Jamie Lee Curtis doesn’t hold back from saying what is on her mind, either. 

Woody Harrelson is ideally suited to play the layabout Eddie and revels in the irresponsibility that comes with the territory.

As the governor, Albert Brooks is ever the good-natured pragmatist.

Spike Fearn is suitably nervy as McCay’s awkward younger brother.

I also quite liked Ayo Edebiri, who plays Casey’s ex-girlfriend Susan.

Ryan is not the smartest tool in the shed and Jack Lowden seizes upon the naivete imbued in that persona.

Still, I question whether – in real life – a smart operator like McCay would be drawn to an opportunist and mummy’s boy like Ryan.

But, this is fantasy, after all, so Brooks milks the differences between the couple to set up the movie and add to the pressure McCay is feeling.

I also wanted to mention Kumail Nanjiani, who made such a splash in The Big Sick (2017). 

He is cast as McCay’s loyal driver (and champion), Trooper Nash, who is not afraid to impart some homespun wisdom.

Gravelly voiced Julie Kavner has two parts, announcing herself as the film’s narrator and McCay’s friend at the start of the movie. She also serves as McCay’s gatekeeper secretary.

So it is that while no Academy Award winner, Ella McCay is a bit of fun and an easy watch in the shark infested world of politics. 

It may not reach any great heights, but it remains bright and breezy, if, perhaps a tad too long at nearly two hours.

Rated M, it scores a 6½ to 7 out of 10.