rzajac
Workable script, fully capable acting, good sets/costuming... but it looks like either 1) ham-handed direction, or 2) the director's interest in nuance tuned to the wordiness of the script getting derailed by the producers pulling rank.Could have been worse, but this is something towards which I feel especially sensitive.It highlights a really important fact about big budget production: Too often producers think they have the ingredients for something produce-able and distribute-able, but don't realize the demands that certain kinds of narrative place on the product. In fact, it looks like they don't even realize that the script, itself, should carry weight in that process. They defer to the knowledge they feel they have about the movie-going public; that too many of them are like babies with disposable income, who don't understand English but are innately attuned to facial expression and body language: And films are busy-box light shows of emoting.As a result, the film all-too-often squawks and gesticulates. The producers refused to let the script breathe.Too bad!Add to this that the script, itself, seems a little strained and the flick doesn't have much of a chance to work on its proper merits; a timely subject matter (guns), coupled with a well-intentioned "insider" look at political gamesmanship.I'm suddenly reminded of a time long ago, in university, during Watergate, when I went to meet with a student club to practice for an upcoming performance. Oddly, someone found us a practice space in a building that had adjacent conference rooms, and one of these rooms was hosting a convocation of monied suits considering bankrolling a rock band. I was invited in to listen to the tune and drop my own two-bits on the marketability of the song "product". The weird thing was that the band used a two-bit cassette recorder, and the tape was so bizarrely saturated that I couldn't even make out the melody... let alone the accompaniment! And certainly not the words. But think about the mindset of these dozen-or-so business dudes listening to this thing, driven to consider putting money behind it because... it was about Watergate.Well, art *matters*. Miss Sloane may be about guns--and very passionate it is about that. But it misses (a bit) as an artistic product.