Review 426: Molly's Game

Molly's Game is an Ace crime drama, a showcase for some brilliant writing from Aaron Sorkin (as well as a first time director) and another excellent performance from Jessica Chastain.

Based on the memoir Molly's Game: From Hollywood's Elite to Wall Street's Billionaire Boys Club, My High-Stakes Adventure in the World of Underground Poker by Molly Bloom.
Molly Bloom (Jessica Chastain) is a competitive skier who after a freak accident decides to move to L.A. and finds work as a cocktail waitress and an office assistant. It is then that she begins running what becomes the most exclusive high-stakes poker game in L.A. and New York for nearly a decade before being arrested by the FBI. Her players include Hollywood celebrities, athletes, business titans, and, unbeknownst to her, the Russian mob.
With the help of her lawyer Charlie Jaffey (Idris Elba), Molly faces federal charges.

The plot is simply brilliant, possibly one of the most remarkable and dare I say outrageous real life stories ever put to film, I swear Aaron Sorkin is fantastic writer who knows how to craft smart engaging stories that keep you on the edge of your seat. It's one remarkable, outrageously told true story.
It's remarkable in the sense that this woman managed to run this underground poker game, make millions off of it and get away with it for so long. Molly Bloom’s story truly is one of the stories that has to be seen to be believed.

According to Aaron Sorkin, Molly’s Game is not a film about poker per say and that it’s more about Molly watching the poker game. All the games are witnessed through her point of view. Whilst the poker games may be the icing on the cake, the real meat of the film is 
It’s a character study first and a poker movie second.   
    
Aaron Sorkin's (in his directional debut) direction is simply sublime, the cinematography is splendid and captures the class and beauty of L.A. and New York, the lighting is terrific, the score by Daniel Pemberton is catchy and high octane, the pacing is just superb, not only is there never a dull moment in this film, you are constantly hooked as to what Molly's next move will be. The Poker scenes in particular are tense and have you constantly on the edge of your seat. Sokin’s use of closeups and different camera angles give us a clear sense of the activity going on at these games and how they’re progressing.
The production design is excellent, the costumes are brilliant, the locations are fantastic, the lighting is splendid.

The acting is tremendous, Jessica Chastain plays a role that she is more than accustomed to playing, but boy let me tell you, she plays these types of roles so well. And she once again delivers playing a character who was born to win against all odds. Right out of collage Molly Bloom was just ready for success, determined to go out and take it. After a fluke accident derailed her Olympic career, she decided to take some time off, go to L.A., be young and rethink her life. 
There she went from being a cocktail waitress - though extremely intelligent to ending up running one of the biggest Poker games in America.
Even though she knew partially nothing about Poker, it becomes clear to her that this is a massive opportunity and she ran it for nearly a decade! She ended up taking over the game and making it bigger. Her strength was not that she was an expert on gambling, she was an expert on gamblers. 

Kevin Costner is simply superb as Larry Bloom, Molly's overbearing father. He was always pushing her to be the best that she could be, initially to be a skier to the best of her abilities. Part of Molly’s competitive personality stems from Larry’s demanding treatment of her and she desperately wants to prove to him that she’s her own person.   

Idris Elba is also terrific as Charlie Jaffey, Molly's lawyer. A former defence attorney who has left criminal law and trials and now works with more corporate based clients. Charlie meets Molly thanks to his teenage daughter of all people, finds her case intriguing and decides to take her case against his better judgment. He starts out as a very straight, cut-and-dry sort of person but the things he ends up doin, starts to unravel as Molly’s lawyer and how he did it end up being quite complex.
Molly got caught up in some nasty business with the mob and Charlie and to cut through and navigate his way though all the murky stuff to find a way to keep out of jail.

On of the reason Charlie takes on Molly’s case is because he’s impressed by and admires her integrity and sensitivity about who was attending her game and her refusal to betray their confidences even though she was about to go to jail and loose everything she had worked very hard for and Charlie finds that admirable of her even though she did several shady and illegal things. 
   
The film also contains a noteworthy performance from Michael Cera as one of Molly's players named Player X who's essentially a composite character of Hollywood actors who attended Molly's poker games.

Molly plays an Ace Game! 5/5.

The Anonymous Critic.