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Miss Sloane

7/10

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.

Only Connors (Stuhlbarg) and Jane (Pill) stay with Waterston and Co.

The film opens on a Congressional hearing bossed by Senator Sterling (Lithgow) with Sloane in the dock - so we know she's in trouble. But just who is really pulling the strings?

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.
133 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 15.

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

Review date: 08 May 2017