Molly’s Game
Starring: Jessica Chastain, Idris Elba, Kevin Costner, Michael Cera
It’s easy to tell that Molly’s Game, the story of an Olympic-hopeful who ends up running the world’s most exclusive poker games, has been directed and written by the award-winning Aaron Sorkin.
Sorkin, the man behind TV’s West Wing and Newsroom and the movie The Social Network, delivers his trademark quick-witted, fast-paced verbal assault on the senses. From the moment the movie bursts on the screen with scenes of mogul skiing and a voiceover by star Jessica Chastain, you know without doubt this is a Sorkin productions. The dialogue is clever, the pace is fast, though the man-splaining by Kevin Costner as Molly’s dad at the end seems a little heavy-handed, as is the theory that she only did it to control powerful men.
Forty-year-old Chastain portrays Bloom from her early twenties to mid thirties in this ripped from the headlines tale (Sorkin’s favourite story-fodder) based on a true-story piece (Bloom herself is still only 39).
Despite the age discrepancy it is a solid, mostly believable and yet nuanced performance which paints Bloom as an ethical and yet driven young woman – the mastermind behind a poker empire which included the rich and famous among the players. A woman who fell into her “career” after an injury ended her Olympic hopes. Idris Elba is the lawyer she convinces to help her when the FBI come after her and she is caught up in a case against members of the Russian mob.
The two have great screen chemistry and make the verbal jousting fun to watch, while Costner seems to be finding himself a new niche as a crotchety father type (and it was a bit of a nerdy movie lover thrill to see him share the screen with his Dances With Wolves co-star Graeme Green, who plays a judge).
This is a solid biographical picture though the poker terms, which are kind of explained in Sorkin’s high speed short-hand dialogue early, do kind of get tedious and the film itself is probably about 10 minutes too long.
– Tania Phillips
