Jessica Chastain kills it as Madeline Elizabeth Sloane, a successful and sometimes ruthless lobbyist in Washington D.C. She has strong opinions and will do anything to challenge herself including quitting her current lucrative position for something more difficult. She joins forces with Rodolfo Schmidt (Mark Strong) to support a bill that will require stronger background checks, working against her previous employer, which angers them but they know how to defeat her.
The plot contains many twists and turns, including Elizabeth ousting her new, accomplished co-worker Esme (the excellent Gugu Mbatha-Raw) who survived a high school shooting and is dedicated to the cause. Ironically, Esme is nearly killed by someone against the new law and is saved by someone also carrying a concealed firearm. This major event changes the course of how senators will support the bill and Elizabeth now knows that she is fighting a losing battle; there is no way that they will be able to gather enough support to pass the senate. And now she finds herself on trial for an ethics violation, which she did commit, bribing a senator with an overseas trip so he would support a bill. That is illegal. Yet, she lies under oath, also illegal and even her gigolo (Jake Lacy, the lone miscast in this cast of thousands) lies also, though she denied him in public. That's right, this often cold woman pays for sex, as she needs that physical release.
But Elizabeth has the last laugh. She kept a spy (Alison Pill) at her old firm the whole time and ousted the presiding senator (John Lithgow) as a snake by illegally spying on him setting the whole courtroom ablaze and shocked. She turned the broken system upside down all with a chilling look on her face.
The stark change in her appearance when she enters prison is shocking, but her actions will never be forgotten.
Though the plot is complicated and messy and difficult to understand, the cast is excellent. They have a nature report, something that can't be faked and Chastain is brilliant as the overworked passionate lobbyist who wants to succeed and is ambitious but isn't well-liked. She has the perfect make-up and manicured nails but is deeply lonely. I do wish the film had delved into her past more, as she had to lie constantly as a child but we never learn why.
And this film brings up the important issue of universal background checks, Elizabeth compares getting a firearm easier than getting a driver's license, the only test she ever failed, a good point. Though this film is too complicated and has too many background characters, it is nevertheless important and good enough to make you think. Grade: B+
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