★★½
(M) 132 minutes
Hollywood's notoriously slow response time means we can expect to see many films this year made in confident anticipation of the Hillary era. This watchable if vapid political thriller ponders what it might take for a woman to get to the top in Washington, casting Jessica Chastain as a stone-faced, Machiavellian operator who may or may not retain some trace of principle.
Chastain plays Elizabeth Sloane, a stylishly ruthless lobbyist who surprises her bosses by refusing to work with gun manufacturers – instead joining forces with the opposite side, represented by Mark Strong as an underdog activist both impressed and horrified by his new ally's methods. Cue numerous scenes where she and her youthful staff plot to get a bill passed through Congress, in the spirit of "hey kids, let's put on a show!"
None of this is very plausible, and Miss Sloane often feels like a careless knockoff of an already suspect notion of "quality" cinema. Director John Madden (Shakespeare in Love) aims for a look that emphasises the soulless glamour of the milieu – grid patterns, cool colours, centred framing – but without the eye for detail of a director such as David Fincher.
Similarly, the first-time screenwriter Jonathan Perera shamelessly imitates the Aaron Sorkin style of banter, without the wit. Even more than Sorkin, he's constantly smirking at his own supposed cleverness, while underlining every point to ensure the slowest viewer can follow.
At its core, the film depends on the assumption – at best cartoonish, at worst misogynist – that a woman at the top of her profession must be a freak of nature. Sloane's dedication to her job entails the absence of any personal life beyond occasional hotel-room trysts with a good-ol'-boy hustler (Jake Lacy, inching away from his wussy persona).
Still, this kind of star part for a female American actor doesn't come along every day. Chastain gives Sloane a histrionic quality despite her veneer of composure; there's a striking moment where she breaks into wild laughter at a business proposition, as if she were deliberately letting herself lose control as a means of baiting her male antagonists.
Given the mechanical twists of the script, there's always the possibility that whatever we take for real feeling might be just another mask. But Chastain makes the guessing game an intriguing one, even if this supposedly tough cookie would be eaten alive by almost any character played by Isabelle Huppert.