Rate The Last Movie You Saw

Director John Madden (Shakespeare in Love 1998) serves up an intriguing story premise in 2016's Miss Sloane, that unfortunately is saddled by contrived dialogue and feels more like a Showtime TV show than a hard hitting movie about the sleazy insider world of D.C. lobbyist.

While the lead Jessica Chastain is capable don't expect a performance like the one she gave in the riveting Molly's Game (2017). While both Miss Sloane and Molly's Game have similar themes about a hyper driven woman who will succeed by deceit, underhandedness and self control...Miss Sloane fails to deliver any heart felt emotions. The films pathos is austere as a stainless steel office and as cold as a D.C. winter.

I blame the coldness of the film on it's attempt at slickly written dialogue that's suppose to sound like insider lobbyist 'speak'. Maybe that sounded good in the early stages of production, but what appears on the screen is all style with little substance. I kept wishing the movie would shift gears and tell a compelling story like Spotlight (2015) had done, but nope as the film dragged on about the only thing of interest was Jessica Chastain's wardrobe. Sure Jessica looked great, but I can't say I though much of her 'goon squad.' Who in the hell thought it was a good idea to pack her high roller lobbyist team with a bunch of goofy rejects from TV's Friends. OK, they weren't really cast as extras on Friends, but they had enough inane quirkiness to have been extras on some TV sitcom.

Miss Sloane needed less 'clever'...aka...contrived written dialogue and much more story narrative. A healthy dose of character and world building would've helped lift Miss Sloane to something worthy of it's subject matter.