PROVIDENCE – Twenty-two months after filming began in Rhode Island , the first Rhode Island audience – invited local members of the cast and crew gathered at the Avon Cinema – got to see the James L. Brooks movie "Ella McCay" Wednesday night, Dec. 10.

The 20th Century Studios drama-comedy officially opens nationwide in theaters only on Friday, but several theaters in the Rhode Island area will screen the movie beginning at 2 p.m. Thursday.

The movie is about a lieutenant governor in a fictional, unnamed state, which looks like Rhode Island, but couldn't be because of one key detail – who rises to the top job when the current governor leaves for a cabinet job in Washington.

The Ocean State's real-life governor – a former lieutenant governor who first got his job when former Gov. Gi

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