Movie Reaction: Molly's Game

Formula: American Made / Rounders

Aaron Sorkin has had a long and successful career as a screenwriter. He's won Emmys, Golden Globes, and an Oscar for his work on things like The West Wing, Moneyball, and The Social Network. You could argue that he's become about as powerful in Hollywood as a screenwriter can get. The question of him directing has always been a matter of when not if he would finally direct a project. My money would've been on him easing his was into it like most showrunners by directing an episode of one of his series where he's already accustomed to having all the control. Instead, he opts for the other way that established people end up directing: he couldn't find someone else to do it, so he did it himself.

Molly's Game is based on the true story of Molly Bloom: a one-time Olympic-class skier who ended up running exclusive high stakes poker games in Los Angeles and New York for eight years before becoming the target of an FBI investigation. Most of the film is Molly (Jessica Chastain) recounting her story to her lawyer (Idris Elba) in the film's present, from the injury that ended her skiing career to the chance job that got her the gig hosting a poker game with celebrities and other power-players, through rises and falls that eventually connect her to the Russian mob. She worked hard to stay mostly clean throughout. The FBI is mainly pressing her to name names that have limited value to them beyond the fact that they are scandalous. She refuses to break her honor code and faces trial and prison time because of it.

This movie is  driven by Sorkin's dialogue and Chastain and Elba's delivery of it. There's no attempt to sell anything but Molly's version of the story as true. I mostly believe her version, but it's easy to spot places where things are sanitized or diminished so it doesn't look as bad for her. Sorkin's direction isn't invisible, but it - no surprise - does seem to be working for the script more than anything. It's almost exhausting tracking the precision of what Molly says. The film begins with Chastain explaining her background in skiing by looking back to the day of her Olympic tryout, and I swear, she said it all in one breathe or close to it. I was exhausted just by that. Ultimately, that became my biggest problem with the movie. There's nothing to cut all that dialogue with. That wore me out, especially given a 2h20m run time. Idris Elba goes on a killer rant toward the end of the movie that I damn near stood up and cheered for when he finished, but my only thought at that point was, "OK, but how much longer is the movie".

A lot of this is tied to Molly as a character and Chastain's performance. Chastian is rapidly establishing herself as the actress who makes being uptight look easy. Molly is thorough and poised. When she's explaining something and says she'll get back to it, she will, even if it's 30 minutes later. Chastain imbues Molly with an assertiveness that makes every genius move of hers look natural. If anything, it's harder to believe that Molly ever messed up, not that she could build this successful company. So, Chastain is worth the cost of admission.

Idris Elba is the one other consistent actor throughout the movie. The best way I can describe his role is that if this movie was a RomCom, he'd be Chastain's best friend who keeps warning her that the boy she's dating isn't worth her time, then is the first to congratulate her when she marries that guy anyway after he proves that he's not so bad. Elba is an engaging sounding board that helps Molly get to the next beat of her story, and as I mentioned, he does get a nice, rousing speech eventually. Michael Cera plays an unnamed Hollywood celebrity who is a regular at Molly's L.A. game. He's pretty good, except I'll confess that I kept waiting him to hit punchlines that weren't there. It's slight typecasting that was my fault more than his. Kevin Costner appears mostly in flashbacks as the overbearing father that both built and broke Molly. Otherwise, it's just a lot of familiar faces showing up for a scene or two to fill the poker room. Sorkin resists the urge to stunt-cast too much, or maybe he wasn't able to call in as many favors as he'd like. Either way, I prefer the level of the casting in this. Bigger names would've obscured things.

Molly's Game is shockingly consistent with what I would've expected a movie directed by Aaron Sorkin to look like. It's faced paced, fast-talking with a lot of story to burn. Chastain sucks you in and doesn't let go until she's said everything she needs to say. It's packed with nice, tense moments and tension-breaking one-liners and character beats. The direction is no more flashy than the dialogue requires. I have no trouble imagining the 8-episode American Crime Story version of this. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing.

Verdict ?): Weakly Recommend