Ella McCay Debuts With Dismal Rotten Tomatoes Score

Ella McCay, starring Barbie and Sex Education‘s Emma Mackey, has debuted with dismal reviews. Writer-director James L. Brooks’ (Terms of Endearment, The Simpsons) new comedy drama follows the lieutenant governor of an unspecified state in 2008 who juggles work and family life while aiming for a promotion as Barack Obama is about to become president.

Ella McCay has a substantial cast, also starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Woody Harrelson, Jack Lowden, Rebecca Hall, Ayo Edebiri, Spike Fearn, and Albert Brooks as the titular character’s family and co-workers. But while the cast have many fans and Mackey is an extremely promising up-and-coming star in general, Ella McCay‘s reviews agree that it is a dud.

Ella McCay has received an initial critics’ approval rating of 32%, per Rotten Tomatoes, from 19 reviews so far. This makes the movie a certified “rotten” choice ahead of its theatrical release on Friday, December 12. The movie’s marketing already made it seem like its plot would be meandering and too broad in concept, and the reviews only reinforce this.

“Ella’s long-simmering conflicts with her brother and especially her father fuel superficial insights at best about siblings, parents and children,” says ScreenRant‘s Todd Gilchrist, “and seem deliberately designed to explain her adult mistakes and complicate the plot rather than flesh out the world of this ambitious, troubled individual.“

Gilchrist also notes that this is Brooks’ “first feature in 15 years, and sadly, time has not been kind to this former titan of a certain kind of film — a kind that it’s equally sad to report is no longer as popular or effective as it once was, either. Chaotic, disjointed and worst of all phony where virtually all of its predecessors exuded an authentic, even uncomfortable relatability […].“

But while Ella McCay is turning out, as many might have guessed, to be a nothing movie, things are still going well enough for its cast. Curtis, Harrelson, and Hall are longtime stars, while the underused Ayo Edebiri is still reaping acclaim for her role in The Bear and got to star alongside Julia Roberts and Andrew Garfield, even if After the Hunt was also a flop.

Emma Mackey, meanwhile, is confirmed to be stepping into the role of Jadis/The White Witch in Greta Gerwig and Netflix’s Narnia movie coming out next year; Mackey was chosen for this part over Charli XCX and Margaret Qualley. The Magician’s Nephew will also star Daniel Craig, Denise Gough, Carey Mulligan, and, reportedly, Meryl Streep.

Reviews suggest that Ella McCay is too scattered to get invested in, but it may not even garner enough attention to be the target of any kind of backlash. It can probably be skipped by all movie enthusiasts this weekend, with several award contenders being released on streaming and a few more on Christmas day to take up their time.