.

Director James L. Brooks is a bit of a Hollywood legend. He is the man behind Broadcast News, As Good As It Gets and Terms of Endearment, for which he won his Oscars, as well as being the producer who gave us Jerry Maguire, Wes Anderson and The Simpsons. He has not directed a film for fifteen years but when you’ve got the history and reputation that he has, when you ask for the financing to make a modern parable about the human condition and wanting to do good, the studios are going to pay up. 

I say this because I’m not sure they’d have coughed up for anyone else. It’s not that Ella McCay is a bad film (although some critics have argued that it is, and audiences in the US largely stayed away) but it is old fashioned and a bit inconsequential. Evidence suggests that the appetite to see a young politician who wants to make the world better but is brought down by minor scandal, is not what it was two years ago. I mean that is the exact opposite on every count of what is playing out in America right now.

Ella McCay has some quite high drama and people in it do some pretty hideous things to the beleaguered heroine, but even with all of this it all just feels nice. It is a little overlong with one particular subplot that added almost nothing, but I enjoyed it. The dialogue is strong and the characterisation is well developed. 

What it also has, and the scenes that centre on just these two assets are the best, is Emma Mackey and Jamie Lee Curtis. Mackey as the title character (who almost exactly shares her name but I don’t think this is another Jay Kelly thing) and Curtis as the aunt who raised her are a delight together. The latter in particular has a warmth and wisdom that can’t help but cheer you up. 

It seems that for all involved then this will be a minor note in once great or soon to be celebrated career, but it is good to see something quieter like this in cinemas before Avatar 3 blasts in next week.