I thought this was absolutely fantastic and it's mostly thanks to a virtuoso performance from Jessica Chastain, who commands the screen with such a force that it's impossible to look away when she's onscreen, and a crackling, twisty script that went a lot of places I didn't expect. This movie couldn't be more timely either - and really tackles the gun control issue head on. The supporting cast is all great as well, but this is Chastain's show through and through. She's the main reason to see this movie and the main reason it's one of my favorite films of the year. A

Awesome movie. Jessica Chastain is amazing and this is her best performance so far. I'm so glad she was nominated for a Golden Globe. Sadly there's pretty much no chance of an Oscar nomination because she deserves one.

9/10 (A)

A commanding lead performance by Jessica Chastain is the highlight of Miss Sloane, an occasionally absorbing but uneven look at anti-gun lobbying. Chastain is very good in the part, forming a fully realized character despite some of the script's shortcomings. B-

Both feared and respected by the Washington, D.C. elite, power broker Elizabeth Sloane (Jessica Chastain) leaves a major firm to join a comparatively small group advocating for contentious gun-control legislation. Her involvement brings them closer than ever before to victory, but concerns are also raised regarding her unconventional and frequently unscrupulous methods. Solidly directed by ever-unostentatious journeyman John Madden (Shakespeare in Love, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel), Miss Sloane is a straightforward, mostly satisfying, John Grisham-esque airport novel of a film, its stylishly cynical, House of Cards-indebted surface giving way to a spiritual center not so far removed from Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. It is not very authentic or convincing as a political treatise, but it is fun enough as it eagerly navigates a series of boardroom confrontations and tastily preposterous Capitol Hill triple crosses. And the entire picture is undoubtedly elevated by its star: Chastain is downright transfixing and sublime in the title role, relishing every biting one-liner and arctic-tundra glance. In one of the year's best performances by a female lead, she infuses a relatively clichéd character recognizable to anyone with cable during the last 25 years (the pro among pros who never loses, but regards other people as pawns and does not readily show emotion) with enormous energy and genuine ferocity. It is 100-percent her showcase, but admirable aid is lent by her co-stars, including the always soulful Gugu Mbatha-Raw as a colleague with a personal investment in the gun-control movement and an appropriately snide Michael Stuhlbarg as an NRA-employed lobbyist.

B

This is a pretty good and tense political thriller with an excellent Jessica Chastain. The first half of the film quite impresses, there is intrigue and it sets up a good story of a savvy lobbyist. In the second half the film loses itself somewhat though, it all becomes a bit soapy, over dramatic and a bit predictable in tying everything up. There are more good performances in it though, Michael Stuhlbarg is pretty good as Sloane's main adversary and Mbatha-Raw shines as well. It really could have been more solid had it managed a better second half, but nonetheless I had a very good time with it.

B+