Disclaimer: I’m a blind film critic, and Ella McCay is available everywhere with audio description, except Disney plus, the most logical place. I watched when it first released on the platform, and Disney did not provide audio description.

Normally, I prefer to watch films with audio description, but since Disney has been taking a very nonchalant approach to accessibility as of late, I figured what better way to point out the gap than with Ella McCay, a film so convoluted it doesn’t just need an audio description narrator, it needs in-film commentary to explain the baffling set of choices made by the legendary James l brooks that led us to this moment.

Brooks, who brought us Oscar winners like terms Of Endearment and As good As it Gets, not to mention executive producing The Simpsons, has lost any relevancy or skill in his direction. I wish we could take the keys away from some of these once terrific directors, so they didn’t tarnish their own reputations. The guy that gave us Best Picture Winner Terms Of Endearment also gave this uninspired political hodgepodge, which despite releasing into a volatile political landscape couldn’t possibly have less to say.

We follow a plucky Ella (Emma Mackey), who is working right under the governor of a state (Albert Brooks) who lets her know that the new administration is likely to tap him for a cabinet position, and he would pick her to temporarily fill his seat. The short story is that Ella finds herself embroiled in a scandal, because she has sex in an apartment paid for by the government, which is somehow illegal, and a reporter finds out and blackmails her. This means her agenda may never get off the ground.

Aside from that little thing which no one would care about between ICE raids, theft of Greenland, the Epstein files, or any of the myriad of problems we actually deal with, Ella is driven by this. her husband (Jack Lowden) is like if the word “lukewarm” became a human. Ella also has an aunt (Jamie Lee Curtis, the only good thing in this film) and a father (Woody Harrelson) desperate to reconnect. the entire film is narrated by one of the most recognizable voice actors ever, so the film sounds narrated by Marge Simpson.

Inexplicably , Kumail Nanjiani is here, and I could not tell you why. if Brooks had passed the film to me before release, I would ahve totally removed him and Harrelson, not because they are bad, but rather the film lacks focus, and has too many moving parts. The easiest way to strengthen it is to simplify the story, and get rid of unnecessary dead weight. i didn’t dislike any performance, but the way the film is written is amateurish, and beneath the typical quality of Brooks. Granted, his last film was the abysmal How do you Know, so it is hard to see if he’s getting better of worse.

Mackey is engaging in a role that is rather cloying. Curtis somehow navigated these tragic waters safely. Woody is just doing typical Woody. Brooks is solid, but barely in the film. Lowden is a good actor, but his role is never given anything of consequence.

Ella has some aspirations, but they seem surface level and attainable by anyone. But,I needed something, anything, to propel this forward. I’m not even really sure what she stands for on more than one or two topics, and her husband is more of a nuisance long before he is intended to be.

Jamie lee Curtis and her effervescent personality just aren’t enough. I’m so sold on the film being not good, that I didn’t even try to scour the internet for audio description. in that regard, I would have paid for something I shouldn’t have to, and it is a bit silly.

If Ella McCay is as good as it gets for director James L Brooks, he has run out of gas.

Rotten: 2.9/10