Molly’s Game (2017)

• Year: 2017
• Released: 05 Jan 2018
• Country: China, Canada, United States
• Adwords: Nominated for 1 Oscar. 8 wins & 52 nominations total
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4209788/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/mollys_game
• Metacritics: https://www.metacritic.com/movie/mollys-game
• Available in: 720p, 1080p, 720p
• Language: English
• MPA Rating: R
• Genre: Biography, Crime, Drama
• Runtime: 140 min
• Writer: Aaron Sorkin, Molly Bloom
• Director: Aaron Sorkin
• Cast: Jessica Chastain, Idris Elba, Kevin Costner
• Keywords: biography, based on true story, new york city, based on a true story, los angeles, california,

	7.4/10
	71/100
	82% – Critics
	84% – Audience

Molly’s Game Storyline

As a catastrophic injury robs her of a promising sports career and a long-coveted Olympic medal, the former competitive skier, Molly Bloom, moves to sunny Los Angeles to start anew, rather than attending law school. However, once there, Molly will soon find the quickest way to success and the closest thing to a profession, running a high-stakes poker game business for deep-pocketed celebrities, well-off businessmen, and the elite. And just like that, the gambling empire of a powerful poker hostess is born; nevertheless, there’s always a fine line between triumph and defeat. Now, with her only hope resting in the capable hands of the wary New York lawyer, Charlie Jaffey, a desperate Molly will have to strive for sympathy; but, who would be willing to represent the infamous Poker Princess?

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Molly’s Game Movie Reviews

A highly enthralling game

With an interesting subject matter, advertising that drew me right into wanting to see it, a great cast (Jessica Chastain, Idris Elba) and one of today’s best screen writers in Aaron Sorkin making his directing debut, ‘Molly’s Game’ had a lot going for it and had more than enough to compel me to see it.

Saw ‘Molly’s Game’ a few weeks ago but didn’t get round to reviewing it due to being so busy and my “to review” list being a long one and getting longer all the time. Likewise with my “films to see” list. Finally getting round to reviewing ‘Molly’s Game’, to me it was a great film and worthy of every ounce of its positive reception, being one of the year’s better reviewed films (another factor in my want to see the film). Not flawless, but one of the year’s best? Yes. Absolutely.

‘Molly’s Game’ perhaps runs a little too long and it fizzles somewhat at the end. At this point the momentum grips less and things ring false, particularly in the over-sentimental family elements (Elba’s powerful speech makes the courtroom elements worth it).

However, Jessica Chastain is a marvel in the lead and she is matched every step of the way by charismatic Idris Elba. Their chemistry blisters. Also worthy of credit are Chris O’Dowd and, more surprisingly, Michael Cera, known for their more comedic roles, being cast against type in very dramatic roles and being every bit as much at ease with them. Kevin Costner also hasn’t been this good in years and that is saying a lot.

Sorkin’s directing debut is a very confident one and shows huge potential and assurance. Despite perhaps being too early to say, he is a better writer than as a director, only because he is so outstanding a writer. The energetic and stylish production values make ‘Molly’s Game’ a visually striking film. The music score is not the most memorable or extraordinary there’s ever been, but it at least fits and sounds appealing.

On top of all that, ‘Molly’s Game’s’ story is fast-paced and highly enthralling. The poker elements fascinate and to me it wasn’t talky and the narration wasn’t that over-used or over-explanatory, there are far worse examples in film and for no reason at all. Other than the cast the other big star of ‘Molly’s Game’ is the crackling script that sizzles in energy, razor-sharp in wit and consistently thought-provoking and entertaining.

In summary, one game that is a must play. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Sorkin almost overwhelms

Molly Bloom (Jessica Chastain) is driven by her domineering father (Kevin Costner) with trust issues. After a devastating crash during the Olympics ski trial, she decides to live life in LA for a year before starting law school. She’s the black sheep of the family. She starts as a waitress, an office manager, and then organizing high stakes poker for her boss. With famous actor Player X (Michael Cera) as one of her regulars, she starts her own game. After some success, it goes wrong and she has to restart in New York. Years later, she is arrested as a part of a Russian mafia trial. Two years earlier, she had written a book about her exploits after the government confiscated all of her money. She hires reluctant Charlie Jaffey (Idris Elba) as her lawyer.

Molly is a hard character to empathize with. She has a thick wall between her and the audience. She opens up very slowly but her wall never truly falls down. There is a climatic scene with her father in Central Park where her character breaks down emotionally. That meeting is too convenient. Is it even real? It would have been so much easier for him to be stalking her outside her apartment. There is also a tendency for Aaron Sorkin to overwrite his scenes. I love his poetic machine gun style but sometimes it’s too much. For example, Jaffey’s outburst at the opposing lawyers is too flashy. A simpler and more effective way would be for him to slowly realize the ridiculous Molly wiretaps and have a giant belly laugh. She doesn’t say a word and he tells them about the drug reference. Sorkin needs a bit of silence which would actually elevate the writing. Sometimes, he is too much of a good thing. Molly has a great story. There is a small chance that Sorkin overwhelmed the telling of it.

It’s on

“Molly’s Game” is a Chinese/American/Canadian new movie that is mostly in the English language and at 2 hours and 20 minutes, it is one of the longest big players this awards season. It culminated in another Oscar nomination for writer Aaron Sorkin, for whom this film is also his very first directorial effort almost at the age of 60. Lead actress Jessica Chastain managed (like Sorkin too) a Golden Globe nomination for her effort here and she is basically in almost every scene from start to finish. The movie is based on the book by the real Molly Bloom and funnily enough Bloom is younger today still than Chastain who played Bloom in the very early stages of her life too, not the childhood scenes though obviously. But Chastain works the part and this film here is definitely better than her also fairly recent “Miss Sloane”. Idris Elba is probably the male actor with the most screen time here, but honestly his material is very mediocre most of the time and I am saying this as a big fan of Elba, especially on Luther. It is really all about Chastain. All about Bloom and not so much about all the male characters surrounding her. Interestingly enough, there is not really one other female character who even plays a supporting role in the grand scheme of things. For me as a Dark Angel fan, it was a truly nice surprise to see J. C. MacKenzie in here play one of the bigger supporting characters as he is in quite a few scenes. But the male supporting characters were all fairly fun and interesting, be it the completely unskilled poker player Bad Brad who beats the talented one (Harlan) eventually causing his demise, or be it Dean Keith who was fun too in the first half before he disappears. So was Chris O’Dowd in the second half. The only one who really did not fit was Michael Cera to be honest as some kind of business/poker mastermind pulling all kinds of strings. It just did not feel real. Then again, I think Cera is generally pretty limited, so this conclusion does not surprise me.

As for the subject, yes it is about poker, but you don’t need to know the rules or play the game yourself in order to enjoy the movie. I personally play very rarely and this was not a problem at all. The film is about much more. I do think the writing is the greatest strength of the film next to Chastain’s performance. Especially the voice-over sequences felt very competent. But also most of the dialogues. Still there were problems. The ways in which they depicted the character’s struggles to gain power over men and eventually quoted this as her key motivation did not always feel smooth and same goes for the parallel they are making towards her past as an athlete compared to her competitive spirit in the now. Or I should say later in the past as the now is really the trial I guess and everything else is just really long flashbacks. Costner did a good job for the most part and elevated the material most of the time, but the father-daughter relationship component, which proves crucial near the very end, did not always work in a way I hoped it would. It all felt a bit for the sake of it giving the movie additional emotional depth without really succeeding in that field and I am not surprised Costner did not receive any big awards attention here despite playing a fairly baity character as we find out at the very end. The film is not scared of depicting pain and violence and this is a good thing as it just fit in convincingly. On the completely opposite side, Sorkin does a good job with getting occasional moments of comedy in like the Kirke reference.

On the downside, there were moments when the movie did not always feel 100% realistic and authentic like the pair of kings eventually appearing, but well it can happen of course, but chances are so minimal that it felt more for storytelling purposes really. But all in all, this was certainly a good watch. The film never drags and that is a pretty strong achievement for such a long movie I must say. It is definitely among Sorkin’s best from what I’ve seen and does not need to hide behind his recent television work or “The Social Network”, which earned him an Oscar and may still be his career-defining work. I definitely recommend Molly’s Game and if you like most of the actors as much as I do, then that is the icing on top of the cake that will make it an even better watch for you just like it did for me, but also if not, you may want to check it out. It really is worth seeing. Finally, to close my review: One small reference about how the central character expects phone calls and the first one comes resulting in her dismissal, while the second one does not come after she was beaten up and had her life (and her mother’s) threatened by the Russian mob thanks to (for Molly) lucky coincidence. Also interesting how the main character is really depicted as a very likable person despite all she did, also with the help of scenes that show her caring for and helping the poker players when their addiction gets the better of them. They definitely wanted to make sure here that audiences cheer for Molly and don’t want her to go to jail for what she did. I have not read the book, so can’t say how close the film is to the original literature it is based on. That’s all now. Watch it!