'Molly's Game' Review

Nominated For: Best Adapted Screenplay.

Molly's Game goes all in to tell the true story of Molly Bloom, a former Olympic class skier who ran the most exclusive high stakes poker game for a decade before being arrested by the FBI. Now, with only her criminal defense lawyer Charlie Jaffey at her side, Bloom must fight off a federal court indictment.

Renowned screenwriter, Aaron Sorkin, breaks in to adapt Bloom's book and he hits the jackpot with his directorial debut. Sorkin has had a straight flush of solid screenplays in the past, and Molly's Game is no seven-deuce. Sorkin shows his hand quite quickly, exuding style to spare in explaining the logistics of skiing and running high stakes poker games in the vein of recent films like I, Tonya, The Big Short, and The Wolf Of Wall Street. Sorkin's dialogue is sharp, snarky, and straight to the point. Just the way I like it... Sorkin's ace in the hole though is having accomplished actors such as Jessica Chastain, Idris Elba, and Michael Cera engage in the consummate conversation.

As much as I love Sorkin's dialogue, some scenes hedged their bets and overstayed their welcome. I think this was largely due to Sorkin's inexperience as a director though, because an experienced director recognizes when a scene starts to run a little long and identify what can be taken out without jeopardizing the rest of the film. However, I'm not sure Sorkin was too interested in cutting any of his own material to condense the running time. And it's not that my issue is that two hours and twenty minutes is too long of a running time, because I'd happily watch three hours of anything so long as the story is focused and maintains my interest. In this case, two hours and twenty minutes was too long for this story because I really felt length of the film's running time towards the end.

Thanks to a powerhouse lead like Jessica Chastain, Sorkin's blunders ultimately don't handicap the film too much though. Chastain simply has a such a commanding screen presence that you can't help but respect Molly Bloom for building such a powerful Poker empire. Chastain projects substantial strength, confidence, and determination in her performance, so you totally buy into the fact Molly was able to rise among a male-dominated arena. 

Having a strong supporting player like Idris Elba around doesn't hurt either, as Elba's Jaffey matches Chastain's Bloom word-for-word thanks to their dynamite dynamic. Michael Cera receives a rather interesting role as "Player X," one of the A-list celebrities Bloom rubbed elbows with in her escapades (assumed to be Tobey Maguire by many), and Cera plays his hand well by leaving a sizable impression with limited screen-time. Kevin Costner also lends his expertise as Bloom's father, Larry, and makes the most of every opportunity to chastise Chastain.

If there's one thing I ought to say about Molly's Game though, it would be that Sorkin went all in for his directorial debut. While he may not have laid down a royal flush, Sorkin certainly had no need to bluff about bringing a few aces to the table in the form of an expert ensemble and a superlative script.

Film Assessment: B