‘Miss Sloane’ is a very slick and mostly successful white-collar thriller

Donald Trump has been talking a lot about “draining the swamp” in Washington D.C. these days. And I suspect for most people the draining should begin with a purge of that much-scorned class of people known as lobbyists.

In what could not be more fortuitous timing, coming as it does in the midst of the Trump transition, “Miss Sloane,” a movie about a high-powered D.C. lobbyist, opened Friday, with plenty of Oscar buzz for its leading lady.

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Jessica Chastain stars as Elizabeth Sloane, a dynamo of a corporate lobbyist who is as resented as much as she is respected. Depending on which side of a particular issue you are on, she’s either a formidable foe or an unflinching ally. She’s the fiercest of competitors, whose bottom line is winning, at practically any cost.

Her philosophy of lobbying is blunt: “Lobbying is about foresight … about anticipating your opponent’s moves and devising countermeasures,” she explains.

Speaking of surprises, Sloane pulls off a big one at the beginning of this movie. Without any warning, she suddenly and dramatically announces to her gathered staff and to her old-school bosses that she’s jumping ship.

It turns out she’s not only walking away from one of her established firm’s most highly valued clients, the N.R.A., she’s actually joining an underdog firm that represents the gun control lobby. The rest of the movie is an all-out war between her old firm and her new firm as both sides set out to destroy the other.

Before you chalk this up as just another left-wing Hollywood movie, it’s important to note that Sloane is not exactly a do-gooder. More cutthroat than compassionate, she seems more invested in the thrill of competition than she is in the cause itself. She seems less a moral crusader than an amoral one, someone who’d be more comfortable hanging around with Gordon Gekko, say, than Erin Brockovich.

Sloane’s motivations are intentionally opaque, perhaps a part of her strategic personality, perhaps a sign of a psychological weakness. And that keeps her a compelling figure.

“Miss Sloane” is a very slick and mostly successful white-collar thriller in the mode of “Michael Clayton” and “House of Cards.”

It may strain credulity at times, but it’s consistently entertaining and surprising. And Jessica Chastain is almost certain to land her third Oscar nomination. Her Sloane is an intriguingly compromised character.