MISS SLOANE – Review

Jessica Chastain stars in EuropaCorp’s “Miss. Sloane”. Photo Credit: Kerry Hayes; copyright: © 2016 EuropaCorp – France 2 Cinema. All Rights Reserved.

There is a certain thrill in following the exploits of the smartest person in the room, the one able to out-think and outmaneuver everyone, who anticipates every move and every development, to win against all odds. In most movies, that fascinating, brilliant person is a man but in director John Madden’s MISS SLOANE, it is a woman. Played with riveting power by Jessica Chastain, Elizabeth Sloane is the one with all the smarts, all the nerve, all the tricks and ready to smack down all opponents to win every time.

We are long accustomed to seeing men as powerful if not necessarily likable lead characters on the big screen, but there is a special thriller in seeing a woman in that kind role. Jessica Chastain has the talent to pull this off, a brilliant, even ruthless character who does not have to soften her edges just because she is a woman. Some critics have argued that Chastain is miscast in this role, perhaps reasoning she is too beautiful to be convincing as this ruthless character. But in fact, her beauty makes the character more convincing, as she smoothly slips around obstacles, manipulates people and situations, and thinks two steps ahead of everyone else. How else is she able to get close enough to the enemy except by appearing non-threatening? The tiger’s beauty doesn’t make it less deadly.

When the film opens, Elizabeth Sloane is a lobbyist with a stellar record of winning and working for a top firm. Sloane has her own team of crack researchers, headed by her assistant and protegée Jane Molloy (Alison Pill), a literary-leaning soul who is still able to keep up with her mentor’s non-stop pace, a kind of Watson to her Sherlock. But unlike Sherlock Holmes, Sloane has the polished social skills to match her big brains. As a lobbyist, Sloane is a gun-for-hire but when the powerful gun lobby wants her to help persuade women to oppose a gun-control law pending in Congress, she unexpectedly balks. After clashing with the firm’s boss George Dupont (Sam Waterston) over the matter, Sloane decides to strike out on her own, taking some of her team with her. Still driven to always win, Sloane switches sides and joins a tiny start-up lobbying firm working to pass the same gun control law. Mark Strong plays the firm’s CEO Rodolfo Vittorio Schmidt but it feels more like he works for her.

Still, Sloane is a lobbyist, not a gun control activist, and her real goal is to win and achieve professional glory – by any means necessary. Aided by enormous self-confidence, Sloane’s strong personality and charisma put her in charge of every room and situation, and she uses all the tools she can – scheming, manipulating, and generally out-thinking everyone around her – to get what she wants. Sensing that the gun control lobby’s pretty but shy researcher Esme Manucharian (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) has a personal connection to the issue, Sloane puts her in front of the news cameras, to great effect. But Sloane’s willingness to take big risks has costs for other, and even her. Eventually, it lands her in front of a Congressional committee, headed by influential Senator Ronald Sperling (John Lithgow).

The film is actually more about how lobbyists work than about gun control but just having that hot button issue at the center will divide some audiences. Mostly, having Sloane take on the powerful gun lobby, whose influence is legendary, just gives her a near-invincible adversary, one that has smote many opponents in the past. This sets up a St. George-versus-the-dragon battle, where success is far from guaranteed and even a small victory against such an enormous adversary counts for something.

John Madden directs this political thriller with a twisty, lightning-fast pace that leaves you breathless. Making a lobbyist the “hero” of a story has inherent problems, especially such a ruthless person, and the film unravels a bit by the end, but it is Chastain’s electrifying performance that makes this film. Elizabeth Sloane is a force to be reckoned with, whether you like her or not. In fact, she is at times, positively unlikable but in this high pressure, high stakes game, Sloane revels in her element, like a ruthless general born for battle. It is enormous fun to watch Chastain play this masterful character, the one who will do whatever it takes and who has the biggest brain and knows how to use it. Still, there is certain chill under that woman-power delight: this awesome character is still a lobbyist.

Chastain is amazing in this film, a performance that should garner some awards nominations, even if the film itself is not flawless. In one of her best performances, the actress brilliantly pulls off the feat of playing a not-very likable character but one we still can’t take our eyes off and whose story engrosses us. Chastain’s Sloane is a character who relies on her brains more than her beauty, and who is compulsively driven to win every fight. Her endless self-confidence convinces people to follow her lead, even when it comes at a cost for them. It is a delight to watch her has she wheedles and charms her way into getting what she wants, and her scenes with Mbatha-Raw (who some may remember in BELLE) as the idealistic but shy Esme Manucharian are among the film’s best. A dash of humor is added by Chastain’s scenes with Alison Pill as her longtime protegée Jane Molloy, and by some of her scenes with Mark Strong, as the head of her new firm, a man who is steamrolled by Sloane’s relentless energy. There are hints that Sloane has a personal reason for switching sides in the gun control law battle but Chastain never lets us under Sloane’s skin, a complex character too controlled, flinty and opaque to reveal those inner motives.

While there is a certain unease is watching a film where a lobbyist is basically the “hero,” Jessica Chastain’s riveting performance as a woman as the smartest, most powerful person in the game makes it all worthwhile, and makes MISS SLOANE a very watchable, irresistible thriller.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars