First of all, it may take me a while to get back into the swing of reviewing thing. I haven’t done it in a while.
Molly’s Game directed by Aaron Sorkin is based the true-events of Molly Bloom, (Jessica Chastain), ex Olympic skier who was mentored by her over-bearing father. After an accident at the Winter Olympics, Molly’s sports career was over. After deferring law school, Molly moves to LA where she works her way up in a new and exciting world of celebs, poker and secrets. After rising through the ranks in the stranger-than-fiction environment of exclusiveness, Molly quickly realises she is in over her head.
After being arrested in the middle of the night for her role in this gambling ring, Molly seeks the help of lawyer Charlie Jaffey (Idris Elba) who makes it his mission to prove Molly is no worse than anybody else for what she did.
Molly’s Game was one of my favorite films of 2017. It was wordy, clever and glitzy but not in a way where I think the film is pretentious. This isn’t just because of my biased view that Idris Elba could literally stare at a camera and say nothing and I would still call it a master piece, the film was engaging, exciting, unexpected and strangely moving, which was an emotion that I had not expected to feel when entering this film at all.
Micheal Cera also makes an appearance in this film and plays Player X who is supposedly based on a real life celebrity who took a great interest in The Game. Player X is a very interesting character throughout the movie because his personality shifts from charming socialite to a slimy, jealous stuck up guy pretty quickly. It’s a character I haven’t seen Micheal Cera play before and I really enjoyed it, his stone cold delivery of some choice lines were especially entertaining.
There’s three complete stand out scenes for me during Molly’s Game:
- The scene in which Molly and Charlie are in court to see whether or not Molly will be found guilty for her “crimes.” The judge before them states that people in Wall Street across the road from the very court house they stand in will commit more crimes in the next coming day than Molly has ever done during her time running The Game.
- The scene in which Molly explains Poker to the audience with the graphics over the screen. Whilst this did not make Poker any easier for me to understand, this had Sorkin’s stamp all over it. The sharp narrative that constantly played over the film greatly reminded me of The Social Network.
- And lastly, of course, the emotional scene in which Molly rekindles with her estranged father.
Every actor in this film gave an amazing performance in Molly’s Game. The fact that this film was based on real life events is baffling to me. Watching people descend into gambling addicting and loose as much as £100 million a night would have detrimental effects on anybody.
Molly’s Game was a thrilling, cinematic film that I thoroughly enjoyed and would definitely watch again!
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