The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Film reviews: Latest releases
(Cert 15, 132 mins)
On the campaign trail, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump promised to “drain the swamp” in Washington DC and restore integrity to American politics.
The lead character in John Madden’s riveting political thriller is one of those egregious pond-dwellers.
Portrayed to icy perfection by twotime Oscar nominee Jessica Chastain, Elizabeth Sloane is a cut-throat lobbyist, who shrewdly anticipates her opponents’ moves and devises cunning counter-measures as she manipulates the hearts and minds of power players on Capitol Hill.
A pill-popping insomniac with trump cards up her designer label sleeves, she’s a delicious anti-heroine for a modern age of appearance-driven politics – someone to secretly root for as she unapologetically wrecks lives in her relentless pursuit of glory.
Elizabeth’s current firm of Cole Kravitz and Waterman, headed by George Dupont (Sam Waterston), implores her to lobby against the contentious Heaton-Harris bill, which is poised to go before Congress and proposes more rigorous background checks for firearm purchases.
She refuses and defects to rivals Peterson Wyatt, run by Rodolfo Schmidt (Mark Strong), taking with her four ambitious juniors: Alex (Douglas Smith), Brian (Ennis Esmer), Franklin (Noah Robbins) and Lauren (Grace Lynn Kung).
Surprisingly, her personal assistant Jane (Alison Pill) refuses to bite the legal hand that feeds her and remains at Cole Kravitz and Waterman.
Elizabeth personally selects Peterson Wyatt high-flyer Esme Manucharian (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) as the campaign’s media figurehead.
Her tactics reap rewards and, in retaliation, Dupont searches for evidence of illegal practices that will force his former golden girl to stand trial at a hearing.
Like Glenn Close’s duplicitous Marquise de Merteuil in Dangerous Liaisons, Elizabeth is a self-made angel of destruction, who snarls at the supposed frailties of her sex.
Time is money and scratching a carnal itch is rationalised as a transaction devoid of sentiment, sealed with an envelope of cash for a hunky male escort (Jake Lacy).
First-time scriptwriter Jonathan Perera arms his crisply suited combatants with whip-smart dialogue for bruising verbal exchanges.
Robust support from co-stars and more than one final reel surprise ensure we’re avid spectators to this modernday hunger games of brazen oneupwomanship.