Miss Sloane

Directed by: John Madden
Written by: Jonathan Perera
Starring: Jessica Chastain, Mark Strong, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Alison Pill, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jake Lacy, Sam Waterston, John Lithgow, Chuck Shamata, Douglas Smith, Meghann Fahy, Raoul Bhaneja, Grace Lynn Kung, Al Mukadam, Noah Robbins, Lucy Owen, Ennis Esmer, David Wilson Barnes
Drama/Thriller - 132 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 9 Dec 2016

If you’re not paying attention to where you are on the west side of Washington D.C.’s red line, you can always tell when you reach the Farragut North stop; this is K Street. The suits you see board and get off are that much sharper than the one you’re wearing. Everybody is crisp in black, white shirt, and a calm tie. The hair is just so and you can check your hair in the polished shoe shine. Miss Sloane is a rare behind-the-scenes look at mega-powerful D.C. lobbying firms. The calculated efforts to sway voting politicians and the chests full of cash to fill their campaign coffers emerge from these firms trying to kill the latest gun control proposal or Obamacare. Miss Sloane is a political thriller at full sprint. The actors fling the dialogue at light speed and you’d better be paying attention; they are not going to say it again.

Best known for his Oscar-devouring film Shakespeare in Love, director John Madden moves away from his two recent Best Exotic Marigold Hotel films and tackles live-wire D.C. culture. I was excited at first to see an actual film shot in D.C., an extremely rare event, but just like everything else claiming to be set in D.C., Madden shot Miss Sloane in Canada. It’s convincing though. The exteriors are believable D.C. streets and the glossy buildings and Senate hearing room pass the test. The most surprising fact concerning how Miss Sloane made it to the big screen is its screenwriter.

Miss Sloane is Jonathan Perera’s first script. Perera isn’t even from D.C., let alone the U.S.; he’s a British lawyer. For someone not from here and unfamiliar with the town, Perera nails the back-and-forth conversations between lobbyists who are all the most gifted person in the room trying to one-up each other through verbal jousting matches. The acknowledged Alpha and Omega of the lobbying world is Elizabeth Sloane (Jessica Chastain, The Huntsman: Winter's War). This workaholic woman pops pills to make it through her 20 hour work day but consistently fires off top notch ideas at her leisure.

Elizabeth Sloane is also built to win. Scruples, principles, and ethical boundaries? Leave those to the guy in second place. No matter the cause, if Miss Sloane agrees to take up your issue, she will win no matter what and it doesn’t even particularly care if she believes in the merits of the case. She’s a fire and forget missile; just step back and get out of her way. Not many people know exactly what it is lobbyists do and according to Miss Sloane, you will not find an exact definition. There are montages of intense research, efforts to force the hands of politicians by putting them in awkward public situations, and always being on the lookout for the blindside attack from your peers.

I wonder if Miss Sloane would still be as intriguing if it was Mr. Sloane. Chastain plays Miss Sloane as if she were just one of the guys, but she is so brash and callous that these personality traits are amplified because she is considered the fairer sex. It is because of her gender that the gun control lobby comes calling; they believe she is the right person to convince American ladies to argue against the latest sensible gun control bill. Not immediately sold on the idea, Sloane accepts the offer of the bill’s competition laid out by Rodolfo Schmidt (Mark Strong, Kingsman: The Secret Service), the leader of a noticeably lesser tier lobbying firm.

Why does Elizabeth take the offer? The challenge. Here is a losing cause nobody in their right mind imagines can succeed, shepherding a gun control bill through Congress. They are out-funded and out-manned, but if Elizabeth can get the bill passed, she will be considered the greatest lobbyist of all time. Money and power do not immediately appear to be Elizabeth’s motivations in why she works herself into the ground and will most likely die of a heart attack at an early age. I believe she wants fame. If that means stepping on a few heads to get there, so be it.

Told in flashback, we spend most of the film finding out why Elizabeth is sitting alone at a table in the beginning being grilled by a Senate panel convened to ferret out corruption. Senator Sperling (John Lithgow, The Accountant) takes advantage of his platform to mock the powerful D.C. lobbyist and pin the blame on her for why the American public considers Congress one of the sleaziest operations in the country. Be careful though, the audience learns very quickly Miss Sloane has calculated through all possibilities better than you did. Give her the chance, and she may turn herself into the one asking questions here. Jack Abramoff may be the most familiar name we can compare Elizabeth Sloane to, but she is in it to win, not to take her place in the good ol’ boy network. Miss Sloane is a great time at the movies; it doesn’t hold up the best after you chew on it for a few days, but it is tense, intellectual, and comes with one hell of a pay off.

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