Molly’s Game Review
Meta: The journey of teenage skiing ambitions turned underground poker host. Molly’s Game is fast, exciting, and brilliant. With a star-studded cast, it is a must-watch.
Molly’s Game: Review
A true story of high stakes, drama, and deceit, Molly’s Game is one of the best films on TV about gambling we have ever seen. A Hollywood-packed cast makes this show as great as can be. It is the story of Molly Bloom, an Olympic-level skier who ran one of the most exclusive poker games ever for over a decade. These high-stake games featured Hollywood stars, business moguls, sports personalities, and, unbeknown to Molly, Russian mobsters who eventually attract some unwanted guests. In the middle of the night, 17 FBI agents wielding automatic weapons arrested her, but despite the stories, Molly was not the villain the tabloids depicted her to be. However, her only ally was her criminal defense lawyer Charlie Jaffey.
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Written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, it shows a confident debut in the cinematic world. Although a writer and playwright for over two decades before this film was created, Sorkin had never stepped into the realm of direction. Previous works include Moneyball, A Few Good Men, The West Wing, Sportsnight, The Social Network, and The American President.
Finding the right cast was instrumental in making this film great, more so due to the added pressure of now sitting in the director’s chair. The choice of Jessica Chastain and Idris Elba was ideal as they translated Sorkin’s linguistic talents into a visual representation perfect for the big screen. For the most part, Sorkin delivers an entertaining and confident film way beyond his experience in the director’s chair, but it is safe to say that it is a little too long. Having the discipline of a tighter edit is something that Sorkin may not have wholly grasped during the making of Molly’s Game, but the over-stretched 30-minute ending could have been avoided. Something that Sorkin may look at in the future.
Sorkin uses the memoirs scribed by Molly Bloom as pre-credits with anecdotes and moments voiced by Chastain. This start gives a more than impressive rundown of how Molly went from Olympic skier to gambling host in a dramatic change of direction. The intensity of the opening sequence is a great indication of what is to come in the rest of the movie.
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Molly finds herself working at an underground poker game for a not-so-friendly employer. The main attraction to these underground poker games is a certain A-lister known as player X, played by Michael Cera. This star is a constant to bring in the deep-pocketed players with a chance to rub shoulders with a celebrity in an entirely new way. On Molly’s first night, she makes an outstanding $3000 in tips.
The movie’s plot is framed around the court case that occurred in 2014 with a try-hard FBI agent looking to get as much as she can from Molly in a chance to turn her hand towards the Russian mobsters and take her career to the next level. Molly’s journey to get to the moment of the trial is depicted through flashbacks surrounding her meetings with her defense lawyer Charlie Jaffey (Elba).
There are many similarities between the direction of Sorkin and his writing style, using an immense level of detail. The poker games are explained in extreme detail but quickly, making it hard for those who do not know much about the game of poker to follow. The resolution to Molly’s complex relationship with her demanding father also suffers from Sorkin’s acclaimed relationship for tidy, uplifting endings with strong uses of sentimentalism.
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It’s Elba’s turn to show off his signature Sorkin speechification moment. Even though he delivers it with accomplishment, it’s a little disappointing that Molly’s Game validates this dynamic woman only through the words and judgment of men rather than through her self-actualization. For the first time sitting in the director’s chair, Sorkin has made an extremely enjoyable movie, which was likely helped by the years spent on set with the greatest directors in the industry while also being regarded as one of the best writers in the film world.
A fantastic movie for an experienced director, let alone a first-timer, Sorkin has delivered an elevated sense of immersion made all the more exciting, knowing that the story is based on actual events. The vast cast could have been a difficult hurdle to jump, but each character is depicted uniquely, showing many individual nuances and traits.
