This is Jessica Chastain's Game

Rating: 9/10 (1 December 2018)

Molly's Game is Aaron Sorkin's directorial debut. You may have heard his name before because he wrote the screenplay for many great movies: The Social Network, Moneyball, and Steve Jobs, just to name a few. As a first time director, this was a solid debut. The film stars Jessica Chastain as Molly Bloom, a once Olympic-class skier who starts running an exclusive high-stakes poker game. She's arrested by the FBI who believes she might be part of the Russian Mafia because of some of her players being in the organization. The movie is based off a true story and very fascinating.
The acting is top-notch! Jessica Chastain kills it in the role of Molly Bloom. When I first saw the trailers, I was worried it would be too much like Miss Sloane (another of Chastain's roles). I really enjoyed Miss Sloane and thankfully Molly's Game is even better and might even be a better performance from Jessica Chastain. She's a rebel and independent. Her character is smart and incredibly confident, but Chastain has range in the movie as she can also be vulnerable whenever Molly gets betrayed or makes a mistake. Jessica Chastain owns this movie, but all the acting was phenomenal in the film. Idris Elba, Kevin Costner, Michael Cera, Chris O'Dowd, Bill Camp, Jeremy Strong, and so many others are great and play interesting and great characters.
The opening scene is perfect and encapsulates everything you should expect from the film. The scene is a skiing scene and has nothing to do with poker, but it details her brutal wipeout which ends her Olympic Skiing career and starts her down the path of having to find something else to do with her life and for a living. It also gives you a taste of the narration that would be throughout and gets you in the head of Molly Bloom's head. The editing is just as sharp as the narration in this scene as it is though out the movie. The sharpness can be confusing to some and those people might feel the film is all over the place, but it's clear these edits are meaningful and every scene has its place in the film.
Sorkin's writing and Chastain's performance makes this movie what it is and gives it a witty, snappy style I love.
I've never really been a fan of poker, but all the poker scenes and the story of how Molly grew her high stakes poker night was my favorite thing about the movie. The story about Harlan Eustice (played by Bill Camp) was especially heartbreaking. But the film isn't just about the "rise and fall" of Molly Bloom. It is also a character study and there is more internal turmoil with her past and why she does the things she does
The only nitpicky things I can say about the film is that there is one ice skating scene towards the end that looked strange and looked like bad green screen. Almost right after that scene, there is a part with Kevin Costner and Jessica Chastain and a three minute therapy session. I have mixed feelings about the therapy session, because I like that there is a purpose for Kevin Costner's character, but I also don't like how it wraps everything too nicely as if to explain everything to the audience.

Story: 9.5
Characters: 10
Acting: 10
Dialogue: 10
Cinematography: 9.5
Editing: 10
Score: 9
Directing: 9
Crime: 8
Critical Score: 9.44
Personal Enjoyment Score: 9.5
Final Score: 9.47