The film stars Meryl Streep, Gary Oldman, Antonio Banderas, Robert Patrick, Jeffrey Wright, David Schwimmer, Matthias Schoenaerts, James Cromwell, and Sharon Stone.

Lawyers Jürgen Mossack (Gary Oldman) and Ramón Fonseca (Antonio Banderas) introduce themselves, along with the concept of money and credit.

When her attempts to contact Mossack and the Nevis-based company are unsuccessful, Ellen travels there to confront Malchus Boncamper (Jeffrey Wright), the manager of the trust.

When Simone discovers her best friend is having an affair with Charles, he offers her shares (supposedly worth $20 million) in one of his investment companies to keep her silence.

Heywood (played by Matthias Schoenaerts and renamed "Maywood" in the film), is an intermediary for wealthy Chinese looking to funnel money abroad.

Maywood demands and pressures Gu for a much higher price if she wants him to continue laundering money for her family through a shell company Mossack owns.

[7] In May 2018, it was reported that Meryl Streep, Gary Oldman and Antonio Banderas were in talks to star in the film, with Netflix interested in acquiring the distribution rights.

[11] That same month, Matthias Schoenaerts, Jeffrey Wright, Chris Parnell, James Cromwell, Melissa Rauch, Larry Wilmore and Robert Patrick joined the cast.

The website's critics consensus reads, "The Laundromat misuses its incredible cast by taking a disappointingly blunt and unfocused approach to dramatizing the real-life events that inspired it.

"[21] Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times called it "a muddled, meandering, hit-and-miss social satire and political commentary that's too heavy on the latter category and often lacking in the former.

"[22] Alonso Duralde of TheWrap wrote: "The Laundromat flails about, with an excess of bad ideas that undercut the justifiable outrage over the events depicted.

Scott of The New York Times wrote: "Soderbergh and his top-notch cast (Sharon Stone shows up, as do Jeffrey Wright and Matthias Schoenaerts) keep things lively, playing out parables of betrayal and deception with pulpy, TV-movie flair.

In December 2019, a U.S. District Court Judge ruled that the film did not defame Mossack and Fonseca; and was protected under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution as free speech.

[35][36] Because the movie involves disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai, and the sensitive topic of organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners, it was blocked from release in China and its Douban entry deleted.