Miss Sloane aspires toward a place between Sorkinian intrigue and Mametian outrage, with acidic dialogue that dances the line between expertise and verbosity. The film is directed by John Madden who is a dependable, professional – if not altogether expressive – film director. Madden seems to be having fun with this loopy government drama that puts a hilarious pinpoint on the practice of Washington DC lobbying but not in any way that will leave an audience member truly understanding anything about what a lobbyist does. That’s because the film’s main character, the eponymous Elizabeth Sloane (played by Jessica Chastain, who brings her usual brilliance), is not just a lobbyist but the lobbyist. Her work is legendary throughout DC, with a reputation that sends shockwaves just by the very mention of her participation. She also manages to possess an otherworldly talent for predicting her opponents’ next moves, like a master chess player seeing her adversary’s moves three, four steps ahead. Putting it shortly: Sloane is a fascinating character, but is she human?

Miss Sloane is constantly throwing this question at the audience throughout the film, and its script (by Jonathan Perera) seems to argue that Sloane’s titanic reign as the city’s best, most notorious political power broker has definitely done a job on her humanity. The film’s story really takes off when Sloane leaves her monolithic lobbying firm at the moment they choose to represent the gun lobby months before a Senate vote on an important gun regulation bill. She leaves for a position at a smaller firm, fighting to oppose the gun lobby and uphold the passing of the bill. Her former boss (Sam Waterston) and co-worker (Michael Stuhlbarg) know they are at a strategic disadvantage, but they have the wealth of the gun lobby and all the lawmakers that that can buy. Sloane’s new firm is headed by an idealist named Rodolfo Schmidt (Mark Strong) who’s willing to deal with the ethically complicated Sloane if it gives the firm a chance to actually win. Sloane’s new team is young and feisty, especially a specialist named Esme Manucharian (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) who Sloane singles out early on as one of the team’s more important members.

As Sloane and her team prove that her political savvy has no equal, her former firm realizes that getting ugly is their best chance at victory, hurling personal attacks that leave Sloane unsurprised. In a tactical approach, Sloane chooses Esme as the group’s face for the media, letting the young woman’s information lead the argument, but Sloane’s motives are never truly clear at any given time. The element of surprise is her favorite, most valued weapon. Most people don’t know the end game until the moment she decides reveal it, and by that time it has probably already happened. As always with these films about career-first women, her professional success is equaled by the disarray of her private life. She suffers from severe insomnia, aided by a habit for uppers that she frequesntly pops throughout the day, held in a tiny tin carrying case. Her only intimacy is with a scheduled prostitute (Jake Lacy) who, even in his line of work, finds her distant. People question her actual feelings on gun control, whether it’s her moral feelings on safety or her own maniacal need for victory that moves her forward. Since when does someone like Elizabeth Sloane, a woman known to do anything it takes to win, have anything in the form of conviction?

Perera’s script works better as a dissection of a power-hungry political monster than it does as a kind of Washington roman à clef, and yet mostly it wants to have it both ways. In the end, Miss Sloane cannot help but make itself a story about the grinch whose heart grew three sizes, and it doesn’t actually have the bite to really talk about the troubling power that lobbyists have in our government. It wants us to know that they’re cultural villains, but she is a hero. The film ends on a note that is so incredibly preposterous, it’s endearing. The film’s godsend is Chastain, who plays Sloane with a fierce austerity, and yet its plainly obvious how much fun the actress is having. The film reminded me of last year’s Truth, which was also a silly political drama (though that film was about journalists) led by a fierce, incredible performance from its lead actress Cate Blachett. Miss Sloane is less romantic, and has to be. The profession it covers is so much more slimy, and thus, Chastain is further allowed a lack of shame that lets her play Elizabeth Sloane with such a rambunctious, over-the-top timbre. Miss Sloane is allowed to chomp where Truth simply hissed. Without Chastain, Miss Sloane is just pedantic, over-stuffed melodrama. With Chastain, it’s still those things but a lot more entertaining.

 

Directed by John Madden, Written by Jonathan Perera