Review: Miss Sloane đź‘Ť
Politics. Not exactly one of my favorite topics and usually not something I consider to be entertaining. Which is what I am usually looking for in a movie. However, today I was pleasantly surprised, because we got to watch Miss Sloane [IMDb, Trailer] in the Sneak Preview.
John Madden tells the story of Elizabeth Sloane (Jessica Chastain), who is a prominent figure in the political circus around the American Congress. In her role as lobbyist she spearheads political movements and pulls the strings when it comes to swaying the senators’ support towards the political goals of her clients. Everyone in Washington D.C. knows that she is the best and the company she works for is the most influential of all.
She has to make a very important career decision when her company is approached by the weapons lobby. They want to push a campaign that is supposed to encourage women to see weapons as chance to protect their children. They hope to get female voters to reject a new proposal that would make a clean certificate of conduct mandatory for any kind of fire arm purchase. At the same time the owner of another firm (Mark Strong) offers Sloane a job to work for the political opponents on the campaign promoting this proposal. Her choice to support the underdogs puts her in the cross-hairs of one of the most powerful interest groups in the Unites States’ political landscape, the supporters of the US Second Amendment to the Constitution.
Sloane does anything to achieve her goal. She is very smart and knows all the tricks of the trade. But that also causes her to be distant, frosty and uncomfortably direct. From her team she expects a flawless performance, while she exhibits very little regard for their personal feelings. Her private life suffers from her insane working hours, which she can only keep up by taking pills. She does not have family and next to no social interactions. When her opponents start to target her personally to discredit the entire campaign, a lot of these flaws are dragged into the open for everybody to see and judge. Suddenly her entire career is in jeopardy. But she wouldn’t be Elizabeth Sloane, if she didn’t have a Plan B.
The movie broaches several very controversial topics in the United States, mainly weapon possession and the political system. It is hard to tell which parts are exaggerated to make the story more compelling, but at least it seems to have hit a nerve. When the movie was released in the US at the end of 2016, there was an immediate backlash from the weapons lobby and they called on their followers to boycott it. Despite an underwhelming box office performance, it has apparently grown in popularity ever since.
If we put the political aspect aside for a moment, there is also just a very good movie that deserves some praise. I was surprised by the well-executed story arc. It was compelling and hardly left the viewer a moment to breathe. In this particular scenario I actually didn’t mind that the plot was quite obvious. At the end there even was one plot twist that I really did not see coming.
The great delivery of the story has to be attributed to the solid acting performances. Jessica Chastain especially did a remarkable job with the main character. Most of the time she is not very likable and that can be very hard to sell. She nailed it. And the few scenes that showed her vulnerable side also were very convincing. The remaining cast was equally important, because they provided the baseline that made Sloane’s personality stand out. And although these roles provided less opportunity to really shine, they still did a good job.
As I said in the beginning: I was pleasantly surprised by how well this movie works. It combines serious topics with strong characters and a story that is worth telling. I can definitely recommend watching it and can only suggest giving it a chance, even if it absolutely not a genre you usually enjoy.
