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Prevenge

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- Tom Wiggins Tom Wiggins

Its latest is lobbying: the dark art of attempting to influence the decisions of people in power. Elizabeth Sloane (an intense Jessica Chastain) is the pillpoppin­g, no-nonsense superstar of this murky world, who puts up so many emotional walls she’ll probably have Donald Trump’s architects on the phone.

After being approached by the NRA to help them block a tightening of American gun laws, Sloane jumps ship to the company trying to see through the bill’s safe passage, taking half of her team with her. You can probably guess the rest.

Like Keyser Söze in The Usual Suspects, only Sloane knows the secret of how this will all unfold – and just as the film starts to lag a little, it ramps up the jeopardy and espionage. In fact, on a couple of occasions it stretches things a little too far.

Miss Sloane reaches for a few dramatic zingers but at times the script is so clunky it takes everything the actors have not to lose their footing. Even in Sloane’s heels Chastain has the chops to handle this; the supporting cast aren’t so lucky. The excellent Alice Lowe wrote, stars in and directs this gruesome, laugh-outloud tale of an expectant mother who hears the murderous voice of her unborn child. The bloodthirs­ty baby sends her on a deadly rampage, although not without continuing to attend her regular antenatal checkups. She’s not totally mad.

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