Miss Sloane

Miss Sloane (2016) is about a Washington lobbyist changing sides in the gun law debate. Asked to work for the gun lobby, Elizabeth Sloane refuses, leaves her firm and joins the other side. The subject is not which side is right but how lobbying works. Its best quality is explaining the method. Sloane does not count votes or write legislation; she finds people at their breaking points, times information, and triggers the other side's move before they make it. The film stages this as a chess game. John Madden directed. Jonathan Perera wrote the screenplay, his first sale; he wrote it with no industry connections and sent it out. Jessica Chastain leads and the film rests almost entirely on her. Mark Strong, Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Michael Stuhlbarg fill it out. It failed commercially, going out in limited release and finishing far below its budget. Chastain was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actress. It runs 133 minutes. Good for: political procedural, fast dialogue, and Jessica Chastain. Less good for: Sloane is deliberately cold and unlikeable and there is no emotional way in. The final turn is too neatly executed and strains belief. At 133 minutes the subplots in the middle are unnecessary.