Ella McCay (2025) review

Ambitious Ella McCay (Emma Mackey) comes from a slightly dysfunctional family - her father Eddie (Woody Harrelson) is a philanderer and her mother Claire (Rebecca Hall) died at a young age - and manages to work her way up in politics to becoming Lieutenant Governor for Bill Moore (Albert Brooks) and then taking over for him when he lands a cabinet gig ... except her career is in jeopardy because her husband Ryan Newell (Jack Lowden) is insecure about how much power she has.  While it's nice that the accomplished Brooks is still writing and directing in his mid-80's, this feature is intolerably scatterbrained as it leaps around time-frames constantly and is full of underdeveloped characters ... although Ella's aunt, played by Jamie Lee Curtis, has some pep in her step.  Considering the climate we're living in - with a White House filled racists, crooks and lunatics - the "scandal" Ella faces, which involves having sexual relations with her spouse in an unauthorized location and "paying off" a journalist, is laughable: any one of Emperor #47's unqualified sycophants can commit an even worse crime in a half an hour and get away with it.  It's intended as a star vehicle for Mackey - who looks like a cross between Margot Robbie and Anne Hathaway - but she's a smidge too generic to make a long-lasting impression.