Molly’s Game Review – Spoiler Free
Molly’s Game is a film which comes both written and directed by Aaron Sorkin who some may know as the writer of The Social Network (2010) or A Few Good Men (1992). The film stars Jessica Chastain, Idris Elba, Kevin Costner, Michael Cera and Jeremy Strong. The film is based on a book by Molly Bloom which chronicles her life in the poker game business, where she ran private matches for famous and also very rich individuals who loved to play poker.
Going into this film I was quite excited to see what it would be like. I’ve been impressed with many of Jessica Chastain’s recent films such as Miss Sloane and A Most Violent Year as well as many others in her filmography, so am quite a fan of what she does. I’m a big fan of Aaron Sorkin and his writing, having enjoyed his recent TV show The Newsroom and also The Social Network. But we’ve never seen Sorkin direct anything in the past and this is his first big film doing so, so I had no idea what to expect. But the combination of actors involved in this film and also the writer and the director had me excited.
The story itself is actually quite an interesting one. I had no idea who Molly Bloom was at all, but her life story of trying to become a professional skier at the Olympics and then failing and somehow ending up in the world of possibly illegal poker games is an interesting one. Aaron Sorkin did well with the writing of the various characters and events in the film, but I think most interestingly, Molly’s character stands out quite a bit. Molly is this strong female lead character who goes out all on her own into a world which can be very dangerous and even though she’s a very smart woman, she still does get into a lot of trouble. There’s a lot of ups and downs to the story and Aaron Sorkin did well to provide an interesting character journey in this film.
Aaron Sorkin as a director I thought was quite good. The pacing, much like his dialogue is both fast and witty. Although the film does have quite a long run time at 2 hours and 20 minutes, the amount of quick character conversations and witty remarks throughout the story, mixed in with the fast pacing meant that I felt that even though the film was dialogue heavy, it didn’t feel slow or bogged down by trying to explain certain scenes to the viewers. Although there’s a lot of content to go through in Molly’s Game I didn’t feel overwhelmed and instead enjoyed watching it all play out.
Jessica Chastain in the film stars in the lead role as Molly Bloom and does a phenomenal job with the character. I felt that she was much more enjoyable to watch in Molly’s Game than she was in Miss Sloane and I think it’s maybe because Molly is a much more relatable character than Sloane was, but both performances were exceptionally good. I also enjoyed watching Jessica Chastain act alongside both Idris Elba and Kevin Costner who both were great in the film.
Overall Molly’s Game is a very well put together and entertaining film about the true story of Molly Bloom. Jessica Chastain did exceptionally well with her performance in this film and both Kevin Costner and Idris Elba were there doing great things too. The highlight of the film for me was the writing from Aaron Sorkin who tends to write very smart and fast talking characters and I very much enjoyed seeing his characters interact with each other. The fast pacing of from Aaron Sorkin helped to keep what is essentially a dialogue heavy film feel quick and not slow at all to watch. Molly’s Game is an enjoyable film experience and I recommend going in to see this if you’re a fan of any of the actors involved or Aaron Sorkin’s previous films. Even if you’ve never seen anything from the cast or the writer in the past, Molly’s Game is still a great choice at the cinema this weekend.
