"Miss Sloan" is about money and power in Washington DC and validates the public's cynicism about how things really work in the Capitol City. And the person willing to walk the closest to the edge and slip through all the loopholes is the one who usually wins. And that person is Elisabeth Sloan (Jessica Chasten), who has mastered all the methods of how to lose friends and alienate people, but is an especially effective lobbyist. When a group working for a bill designed to close gun sales loopholes approaches her, she surprises everyone by resigning her current position and signing on with millionaire philanthropist Rodolfo Schmidt (Mark Strong), who admires her results (but not necessarily her tactics). She soon finds herself matching wits with her former colleagues and is eventually the center of a congressional subcommittee looking into some of her previous activities.
Jessica Chastain's powerful performance as a career-obsessed lobbyist who is smarter and slicker than all other contenders is the best thing about "Miss Sloan." Elizabeth is driven to win at all costs and moments of humanity are infrequent. The supporting cast is top rate. Guru Mbatha-Raw has a showy part at Esme Manchurian, the liberal assistant who becomes the face to the media of Elizabeth's campaign. Allison Pill is her former right-hand who is now part of the team opposing her. That team is led by Michael Stuhlbarg's Pat Connors. Veteran actors Sam Waterston plays George Dupont, the head of the NRA's lobbying firm and John Lithgow is the congressman Dupont has in his pocket. "Miss Sloan" is less about being pro- or anti-guns than it is about exploring the lobbying forces arrayed for and against the NRA. As a dramatic thriller, it keeps you involved and interested, even if you really don't like Miss Sloan very much.
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