Directed by John Madden. With Jessica Chastain, Mark Strong, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Michael Stuhlbarg. In the high-stakes world of political power-brokers, Elizabeth Sloane is the most sought after and formidable lobbyist in D.C. But when taking on the most powerful opponent of her career, she finds winning may come at too high a price.
This was certainly a well constructed script though some of the turns weren’t subtly executed enough to have confounded me as well as I would have liked. Still there was enough unexpectedness in the telegraphing that I suspect most were caught unawares, which makes it a fantastic film.
There were far more supporting characters here than in a typical studio picture, but that actually made it more interesting and gritty somehow. Generally well acted by everyone, though Michael Stuhlbarg and Mark Strong stood out to me as incredibly solid here.
Though Elizabeth Sloane doesn’t seem to have much of a character arc, like most of her life, she’s living it out internally so that it really isn’t seen until the last minute when everything is revealed. It’s nice to see a painfully flawed central character as a lead.
The film holds up reasonably well all these years later. The cinematography isn’t as off-seeming as many late 70’s pictures typically feel.