Skip to main content

Movie Review: "Molly's Game" Knows Which Cards To Play To Make An Entertaining Film

MOLLY'S GAME
Starring Jessica Chastain, Idris Elba, Kevin Costner, 
Michael Cera, Chris O'Dowd, Bill Camp
Based on the book by Molly Bloom
Written for the Screen and Directed by Aaron Sorkin














Reviewed by Patrick & Paul Gibbs

 Out of four


The story of Molly Bloom is a story about resilience in the face of obstacles. It's also a story about stubbornness, pride, fragile egos, scheming and money. In short, it has almost everything that writer Aaron Sorkin would need to create a film that fits his signature brand of very clever (sometimes too clever) dialogue and character study set against a colorful backdrop. 

Molly Bloom (Jessica Chastain) preparing for a downhill run.
(Image Courtesy STX Films)
Bloom (playe here by Jessica Chastain) was charged in April of 2013 with running a high-stakes poker game that originated out of the Viper Room in Los Angeles and attracted wealthy individuals, sports figures and Hollywood celebrities, and just may have also attracted the attention of the Russian mob (Fake news! Sad.). Tobey Maguire was said to be instrumental in getting the game started, and other celebrities who were said to frequent the games included Leonadro DiCaprio, Ben Affleck, Alex Rodriguez and Macaulay Culkin.

Molly arrives at work with the infamous "poor people bagels."
(Image Courtesy STX Films)
But Bloom started off in a very different competitive atmosphere, that of Olympic moguls skiing.  The film chronicles her life altering accident at the Olympic Trials trials in Deer Valley, Utah. When her hopes at an Olympic career are dashed, she decides to go to law school, but in the meantime begins working as a personal assistant to a real estate agent named Dean Keith (Jeremy Strong), who introduces her to the world of underground high stakes poker. When Molly starts making a killing off of helping Keith run these games despite his tendency to lose, he tries to cut her out, and learns the hard way not to cross Molly Bloom, as the game quickly becomes hers with the assistance of a Hollywood star identified only as "Player X" in the film (the role is played by Michael Cera, which is easily the least believable part of the film as no one is going to buy Michael Cera as a movie star.).

Jessica Chastain enjoys a Sorkin speech.
(Image Courtesy STX Films)
Sorkin holds a lot of winning cards in his cast, especially the Queen (Chastain) and the King (Idris Elba in a terrific turn as Molly's lawyer), but his ace in the hole is Kevin Costner as Molly's psychologist father, Larry Bloom. This is Costner's best performance in a very long time, ranking among the strongest of his career, and he deserves to be getting serious Oscar buzz, and it's great to see him on screen with his Dances with Wolves discovery Graham Greene again, even if they are literally on opposite ends of a courtroom the entire time and never speak a word to each other. Still, as good as Costner is, it's important to recognize that having Chastain to play off of is an important part of that, and it's hard to overstate her ability to carry a film on her shoulders. She has lit the screen on fire with far less interesting characters than this one, and it's really a testament to what a great year it has been for women in leading roles that she is not likely to walk away with a gold statuette for her efforts.

The script is typical Sorkin, nothing more and nothing less. The fact that real life conversations are never nearly as vivid and structured as they are in a Sorkin script is always going to both his greatest strength and greatest weakness, but his verbal thrust and parry is often more entertaining than the best Yen Wo Ping choreography. Sorkin also struggles a little with convincing us why Ebla's character would want to take this case, and you may find yourself with some nagging questions the next day, but it all splays well enough.Molly's Game doesn't reach the level of greatness of Moneyball, but it is more than enough to please his many fans, and as first time directing effort, it's impressively skillful, even if the pacing lags a little on occasion.

The Bearded Trio - The Site For Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, John Williams and a whole lot more.

THE BEARDED TRIO ON FACEBOOK
THE BEARDED TRIO ON TWITTER
THE BEARDED TRIO ON GOOGLE+
THE BEARDED TRIO ON PINTEREST

CLICK HERE FOR FACTS ON STEVEN SPIELBERG
CLICK HERE FOR FACTS ON GEORGE LUCAS
CLICK HERE FOR FACTS ON JOHN WILLIAMS

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Did Paul Freeman Accidentally Eat A Fly In Raiders of the Lost Ark?

The Famous Indiana Jones Fly In Belloq's Mouth Scene.  Did It Really Happen? I've always wondered if Paul Freeman unintentionally consumed a fly in this scene in  Raiders of the Lost Ark ?  It's the scene where Indiana Jones shouts down to Bellosh...I mean Belloq and threatens to blow up the ark.  Did a fly go in his mouth? I remember watching this scene back in the early eighties and my ten year old mind thought he definitely had a snack while filming.  I recall talking about 'flygate' in my school playground at the time and the general consensus with my friends was that Freeman definitely had a sneaky snack. Paul Freeman talks about the famous 'fly' scene in an interview with TheIndyExperience.com  and settled 'flygate:' This is a bit of a dicey question so don’t get too upset. (Laughs) A movie’s always got bloopers in it, some have a lot, and some only have three or four. And the most remarkable blooper was right before the opening of th

Star Wars VII Movie Poster - Every End Is A New Beginning

Star Wars VII Movie Poster Just saw this Star Wars VII movie poster on Kyle Newman's Facebook fee d.  The poster is by  Lyndon Berresford and Paul Bateman.  I am loving this.  Who do you think the two characters are?  Lando and Leia?  Han and Leia's children? Have you seen other Star Wars VII movie posters?  Let me know. Rob Wainfur @welshslider

Explaining That "Weird" Cut In Poltergeist. Read The Missing Scene

Why Is There A Strange Cut In The 1982 Horror Classic, Poltergeist? If you're a fan of the 1982 Horror classic, Poltergeist then you will be very familiar with that "weird" cut in the movie.  It's 32 minutes and 47 seconds in to the movie and the scene is where Diane is explaining the strange phenomenon that is happening in the kitchen.  First, she shows to Steve a chair scraping across the floor all on its own then she does the same with Carol Anne.  Steve leans up against the kitchen wall and is completely shocked at what just happened.  It's at this point Diane starts to explain the sensation of being pulled and then...A very abrupt cut.  One moment we are listening to Diane and suddenly it cuts to Diane and Steve at their next door neighbours door.  Why the sudden cut?  It's on the VHS, DVD, Blu-Ray and even the streaming versions.  Why does this awful and weird cut exist in the movie, Poltergeist?  Watch the clip below to see the cut: Well, the ans