Miss Sloane (DVD)

Stars: Jessica Chastain, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Sam Waterston, John Lithgow, Mark Strong, Michael Stuhlbarg, Alison Pill, Jake Lacy, Dylan Baker, Douglas Smith, Meghann Fahy

Director: John Madden

This is a decently-made drama with a kicker you just know is coming at the end. Its problem is that the title protagonist is just so darned dislikeable.

Elizabeth Sloane (Chastain) is a decidedly not-nice political strategist (lobbyist) who quits her megabucks job with a company headed by George Dupont (Waterston, less upright than in his Law & Order days!) that is helping those in favour of guns to fight a bill restricting their use.

Sloane defects to the other side, led by Schmidt (Strong), fired by the challenge of winning a tough fight, and taking most of her staff with her, including Esme (Mbatha-Raw), a bright spark who worships Sloane, but finds to her cost that her boss will use anything and everything to advance her campaign.

Chastain charges through the role of the success-hungry careerist who pops uppers from a pillbox to keep herself going, almost never sleeps and hires male prostitutes for sex.

Raw, Pill, Waterston and Lithgow all provide strong support, and the courtroom climax provides a satisfactory ending to a somewhat overlong but sometimes engrossing movie.

David Quinlan

Canada/USA/France 2016. UK Distributor: entertainmentOne . Colour by Eclair.
127 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 15.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 1, Violence/Horror 1, Drugs 0, Swearing 2.

Review date: 20 Sep 2017