Molly's Game review

MOLLY’S GAME:

JESSICA CHASTAIN WINS THE GAME!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

STX FILMS

Jessica Chastain as Molly Bloom in Molly’s Game

            Writer, Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network, Moneyball, Steve Jobs) makes his directorial debut with the crime-drama, Molly’s Game, based on the true story of Olympic-class skier turned underground high-stakes poker host, Molly Bloom. The film stars Academy Award nominee, Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty, The Martian, Miss Sloane) as Bloom and follows the events of when she ran the most exclusive high-stakes poker game in Los Angeles and New York City and what led to her inevitable arrest.

            I’m glad to say that Aaron Sorkin has knocked it out of the park here, this is a solid directorial debut that’s well-written and Chastain’s performance is stellar. While I don’t think this film is quite as strong as Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird, it’s still a smart, dramatic, and at times witty game of poker.

            The film follows Molly Bloom (Chastain), a young woman who ran the world’s most exclusive high-stakes poker game for a decade before being arrested by the FBI. Her players included Hollywood celebrities, athletes, business titans, and unbeknownst to her, the Russian mob.

            Her only ally during all of this was her criminal defense lawyer, Charlie Jaffey (Idris Elba-Thor, Prometheus, Pacific Rim) who learns that there’s much more to Molly than the tabloids led us to believe as she faces federal charges.

            The film also stars Kevin Costner (Dances with Wolves, Field of Dreams, McFarland, USA) as Larry Bloom, Michael Cera (Superbad, Juno, This is the End) as Player X, Brian d’Arcy James (Friends with Kids, Smash, Spotlight) as Brad, Chris O’Dowd (Bridesmaids, The Sapphires, Thor: The Dark World) as Douglas Downey, J.C. MacKenzie (Murder One, The Aviator, The Wolf of Wall Street) as Harrison Wellstone, Bill Camp (Birdman (Or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), Black Mass, The Night Of) as Harlan Eustice, Graham Greene (Maverick, The Green Mile, Wind River) as Judge Foxman, Jeremy Strong (Lincoln, Black Mass, The Big Short) as Dean Keith, Joe Keery (Chicago Fire, Empire, Stranger Things) as Cole, Natalie Krill (MVP, Remedy, The Next Step) as Winston, Claire Rankin (Death Wish V: The Face of Death, Side Effects, Stargate: Atlantis) as Charlene Bloom, and Jon Bass (The Newsroom, Big Time in Hollywood, FL, American Horror Story: Roanoke) as Shelly Habib.

            Overall, Molly’s Game is a fascinating journey through the events of Molly Bloom’s underground poker career and shows a bright directing future for Aaron Sorkin. If you’ve seen plenty of films written by Sorkin then you can point out a lot of his tropes and clichés in the screenplay, but unlike Christopher Nolan where he bombards you with exposition and dialogue-heavy scenes that give your brain a headache, Sorkin actually keeps you invested in what the characters are discussing.

            I’ve seen movies good and bad that had a lot of dialogue-driven scenes with exposition and analyzing that either overwhelmed my mind or put me to sleep. Aaron Sorkin’s movies don’t do that to me, this film clocks in at two hours and twenty minutes with a lot of game statistics and dialogue-heavy moments and not once, NOT ONCE, was I ever bored in this movie.

            Even at slow moments or whenever I started to acknowledge the running-time, I wanted to know everything that was going to happen and hear what the characters are saying. Take some notes Nolan, this is how you make us care about characters in movies, give us characters that act like people and keep us invested, not exposition-spitting robots.

            Besides Sorkin’s writing and directing, the performances by Jessica Chastain and Idris Elba are what truly sell the movie. Chastain always gives it her all whenever she’s on-screen and delivers a powerhouse performance and Elba offers some of the best acting by him I’ve seen in a while.

            Molly’s Game shows a bright directing future for Aaron Sorkin and if you’re a poker enthusiast or looking for a great time at the movies around awards season, this is a “Game” that’s definitely worth playing. Aaron Sorkin has successfully made the transition from writing to directing and I’m looking forward to what he has planned next.