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. Brooks is the aging master behind triumphs of that genre such as Terms of Endearment and Broadcast News, but those were made in the 1980s. Can Ella revive his magic in a contemporary setting' 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...
learn more
