Washington politics are rarely as exciting and nerve-wracking as they are in John Madden's recent drama, Miss Sloane. As the titular lobbyist fighting the gun industry (for wanting to stop a bill that would ensure further and detailed background checks on any new firearm buyers), Jessica Chastain exudes a certain tough-as-nails machismo not often seen in a female on a big screen Hollywood fare, and her ruthlessness is clearly a necessity in this dog-eat-dog world of our capital's ass-kissing politics (I suspect the same rules apply in Tinseltown, so being a successful actress has prepared her well for this role).
Chastain's workaholic Elizabeth Sloane eats at Asian restaurants alone in the middle of the night, she pays handsome, muscular men for sex, she even gets a new colleague (the timelessly beautiful Gugu Mbatha-Raw) to confide in her, only to use the woman's personal past in order to gain an upper hand in her political gun lobbying battle. She's not so much your typical movie woman as she is a modern, red headed dragon in high heels whose definition of contentment is nothing more than solitude with her smart phone and the misery of her enemies. The always captivating Mark Strong holds his own as Sloane's boss Rodolfo Schmidt, whose own ethics and morals differ greatly from Elizabeth's rule bending and throat stomping desire to win at any cost.
Miss Sloane packs more thrills than your average action movie (it does this while producing only a single gun-shot, and frankly, it could have done without it), and in today's age of over-produced and overblown Michael Bay/Guy Ritchie/Roland Emmerich blockbusters, that is no small feat.
B+
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