Coming up trumps

Rating: 6/10 (18 January 2018)

Aaron Sorkin delivers another film with sharp dialogue but this time he also takes on directorial duties in Molly's Game based on true events
Molly Bloom (Jessica Chastain) comes from a family whose father demands excellence. A freak accident prevented Molly from making it to the US Olympic skiing team. On her way to law school, Molly ended up working in a bar in LA and then became a PA to a man who ran underground poker games for the rich and famous. Over time Molly learned the ins and outs of this side gambling operation and took over it by providing a better and more glamourous experience.
As always Molly falls foul of the FBI and needs the help of a lawyer Charlie Jaffey (Idris Elba) who wants her to give the FBI some names of her high stake gamblers. Some of them were A list celebrities, others were mobsters.
Sorkin adds depth to Molly by making her more than a smart driven woman constantly living of her wits. We see flashbacks of young Molly and her therapist father (Kevin Costner) who she was constantly flippant with.
The film moves breezily, Sorkin adds some visual trickery to make poker look exciting but it does have a bloated running time and some of the gambling lingo just goes over your head. The biggest problem is people involved in high stake gambling are never going to be nice people and Molly herself is descending into drink and drug addiction.
I also thought the parallels with the book The Crucible which the lawyer's daughter is reading just came across as rather ham fisted. Still Sorkin always try to write a film that has a bit of street smartness about it.