Dreadfully Boring

Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

There is definitely an excellent idea hidden in the background of the film. Unfortunately, it's difficult to find it.

Jessica Chastain's performance is terrible (and I generally really like her) and this played out like a wanna be earnest idea of lobbyists by writers who don't actually know Washington or that world at all. - Yet the facts included and the obvious need for change around the 2nd Amendment are compelling and fascinating.

Liz Sloane does not relate well to people: she has little empathy for others. She does, however, understand what makes people tick, which is why she is an excellent lobbyist. She is working for a firm which is seeking to generate senatorial support for a bill to require greater background checks for those buying firearms: the gun lobby is fiercely opposed to this. All this is presented within a framing story by which we know that there is a senate hearing into Sloane's alleged rule breaking during her lobbying activities.Let me say at the start that this film engages the interest at the start and holds it throughout. It is a great pleasure to find one's brain in use all the way through over two hours of a movie: the story is fresh and always moving, with much drama along the way. Never difficult to follow, it has a couple of dramatic high points along the way, and a great ending - fair, but unexpected. I really liked the story here.While I like Jessica Chastain on chat shows, I always find her performances a little cold. That very coldness suits Liz Sloane, however, and Chastain really impresses here. The rest of the cast are good too, providing some of the emotional connection which Liz Sloane can't (or doesn't) offer. Gugu Mbatha-Raw is as impressive as she was in Belle.I wasn't expecting to enjoy this, but I did, a lot.

This film was a big surprise. Intelligent and thought provoking about the ethics of lobbying and the issues around gun control in the USA. I thought the acting was top class and it had a genuine kick/shock at the end!

"Simple" masterpiece. Worth spent your precious time.