Ella McCay

As it tackles dirty politics with a tone of feisty idealism, you figure Ella McCay either stems from a bygone era or takes place in a fantasy world.

In fact, both might be true of this uneven comedy from acclaimed director James L. Brooks (As Good as It Gets), which produces some scattered laughs from a disjointed and aimless script about scandals that feel pretty tame by today’s standards.

It’s set around the 2008 recession, when Ella (Emma Mackey) is the 34-year-old lieutenant governor of an unnamed state inherits the top spot when her apparently beloved mentor, Governor Bill (Albert Brooks), garners a cabinet role In Washington.

She’s got big ideas that would make her popular, yet perhaps unfairly is saddled with a reputation for being long-winded and difficult.

Ella tends to keep personal details private, and for good reason. Flashbacks detail a troubled childhood spent living with an outspoken aunt (Jamie Lee Curtis) and becoming estranged from her womanizing father (Woody Harrelson), who’s now desperate to reconcile.

Meanwhile, her marriage to her high-school sweetheart (Jack Lowden) is unstable as he wants a piece of the spotlight. She also wants to patch things up with her younger brother (Spike Fearn) who has become distant.

Amid this whirlwind, Ella stumbles in winning over the general public to secure votes for her legislative priorities. Is she being unreasonably stubborn or just standing up for herself? As Ella learns the hard way, it’s not her opinion that matters most.

A strong ensemble cast is unable to keep the mediocre material grounded in reality. Mackey (Hot Milk) is charming enough, although not fully convincing as a hard-nosed, empowered politician. The periphery characters are thinly sketched.

For his first feature in 15 years, Brooks’ screenplay exhibits flashes of his usual acerbic wit but bogs down in dead-end subplots while dispensing half-hearted pearls of wisdom, such as these departing words from Bill to Ella: “It’s not enough to be smart. Around here, to get anything done, you have to make dumb people feel less dumb.”

The stabs at screwball mayhem or socioeconomic satire generally fall flat in a film that relies on corny sentimentality and only occasionally sparks to life.

Like its title character, Ella McCay mounts a well-meaning campaign, yet struggles to balance the messy and awkward with the sweet and sincere.

Rated PG-13, 115 minutes.