Written by: Aaron Sorkin (written for the screen by), Molly Bloom (based on the book by)
Directed by: Aaron Sorkin
Starring: Jessica Chastain, Idris Elba, Kevin Costner, Michael Cera, Chris O'Dowd
Rated: R
Watch the trailer
Plot
The true story of Molly Bloom, an Olympic-class skier who ran the world's most exclusive high-stakes poker game and became an FBI target.
Verdict
While it's heavy on talking, the dialog will maintain your interest. It's a wild story, but that doesn't translate to a fun movie due a focus on dialog that keeps the movie static. While Molly's game is poker, this isn't a poker movie. In a poker movie, the stakes for Molly weren't high enough, I didn't feel like she was in danger.
It depends.
Review
This seems like a poker movie, but it isn't. Don't expect Rounders. That movie was a lot of fun, but Molly's Game doesn't delve into poker. It's mentioned a couple of times, but most of it is Molly showing off how smart she is.
Molly is a former skier who turned to grifting, and she ends up running a poker game. It isn't illegal because she isn't taking a cut.
Michael Cera plays a well known, though unnamed actor, who helped cement Molly's place in the underground poker world. In reality, that role is based on Tobey Maguire who frequented her games.
There is a lot of talking, even using voice over when we aren't watching people talk. The movie in effect dumbs the story down and just gives us a re-telling. The dialog is solid, and two fantastic actors deliver those lines, but I can't help but hope for something to happen. This is Sorkin's directorial debut, which is more than adequate, but it's a lot of telling and not always a lot of showing.
Molly's game gets huge, with her running multiple games at a time and staying up days on end to ensure things run smoothly. Ultimately she gets addicted to drugs to forgo sleep, but by the time the movie starts, she's over all of that. This could be a movie in of itself, but we don't see this aspect of her story. We just hear her tell it.
It's so understated it starts to lack. It's a wild story about getting hot and how easily you can lose it, but everything comes a bit too easy for Molly. I never thought she might actually face any consequences. The risk isn't real.
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