Ella McCay | Film Review

 

Ella McCay (Emma Mackey) struggles to balance her family relationships and marriage with her job as governor.

I heard really bad things about this film when it came out, which felt weird for a film that seemed quite simple and inoffensive. But it definitely made me more intrigued to see it. In fact, I don't know that I would have seen it without hearing the negative reviews.

I thought the film was fine. I didn't love it, but it definitely wasn't as bad as the reviews suggested.

I was surprised by the cast, though - there were, oddly, some great people in the film, and I do wonder why they all said yes to it. It's not exactly original or ground-breaking.

I found the time jumps at the start of the film too significant, considering that all of the actors looked exactly the same in all time periods.

The biggest problem of the movie for me was that it was more a collection of scenes than an actual movie. Some of them didn't even feel connected to each other.

The characters were also an issue for me. They were fleshed out, and it felt like care went into creating them, but none of them felt like real people, and none of their interactions felt particularly real either. But I did find them endearing, particularly towards the end.

It doesn't quite fit into any genre, it's not funny or dramatic or particularly political, considering it's classed as a political comedy-drama. In fact, it kind of felt like a 2-hour trauma dump.

It did try to be political at certain points, but it never actually delivered.

Looking back at the film, I'm struggling to understand what the point was. The characters didn't really develop, there was no strong message, and it wasn't particularly memorable.

Overall, despite not having many good things to say about it, I did find it oddly engaging. It's not one that I would re-watch, but I'm not mad I watched it.

4.5/10