Excellent Writing and Chastain Isn't Bad Either

Rating: 8/10 (21 August 2018)

Molly's Game is a long movie - 140 minutes - but it is a testament to the writing that it doesn't feel that long. The story is complex with many threads. Keeping the threads straight and savoring the complex language is part of the enjoyment of watching this movie.
Aaron Sorkin wrote the screenplay for this movie, adapting the book "Molly's Game". The book, written by the main character Molly Bloom, is the true story of her life, which originally started as an almost-Olympic skier. As the movie lays out in the first few moments, she isn't able to pursue her skiing career and settles into running the most exclusive, and high stake, poker games in the country. The book, and the movie, is all about her rise and fall in her second career.
That she is involved with some very interesting characters in this career is a given and the movie puts together a terrific cast of characters that play the poker players, both in Los Angeles and New York. The viewer will learn more than she ever wanted to know about playing this kind of poker. But the cool thing is that we are learning along with Molly, because, at the beginning, she doesn't know anything about the game herself. Only through the same kind of persistence and hard work that she had applied to skiing, does she become such an expert that, although she never plays the game herself, she is able to understand every little nuance of what is happening at her table.
It is one of the great strengths of the story that it is able to bring the viewer up to speed so quickly. Indeed, this movie is more about the mind than it is about the body - more about the language than the action. And that is why it received a well deserved nomination for writing. As is often the case with adaptations, I can't tell if the excellent writing comes from Aaron Sorkin's screenplay or Molly Bloom's original book. Whichever it is, let's just say it works.
An important device in the movie is Molly's narration. The voiceovers are frequent and sometimes lengthy, but certainly help keep the film moving forward. Molly's explanations of her own actions are an important part of understanding the complex events and the narration fills in important gaps. I suspect that much of the narration are almost exact quotes from the book, but, having not read the book, I can't say. At any rate, they are an essential element.
But there is also some very powerful dialog. Molly's conversations, always with men, are critically important to understanding her intellectual power, which is considerable. I think that a key aspect of the movie is that it shows a woman achieving mastery, on her own terms, over a group of powerful men. The most interesting point of the movie is how she does that and, importantly, why she chooses to do so!
But Molly isn't the only intelligent character in this movie. There is a powerful monolog by her attorney, played by Idris Elba, detailing why Molly shouldn't be prosecuted that is wonderfully rich in both words and ideas, and, mostly successful. And there is a critical conversation between Molly and her Father (played by Kevin Costner in one of his best recent performances) where the essential motives for Molly's behavior, and identity, are made clear. That is a conversation that will draw tears from most viewers as it explores the father-daughter relationship in important ways - and makes it clear that despite what daughters think, fathers are fallible human beings too!
Sorkin has written numerous other movie screenplays that illustrate his ability to develop complex plots and difficult subjects. Moneyball, The Social Network, Steve Jobs, and A Few Good Men were all written by Sorkin. He was nominated for an Oscar for Moneyball, and won the Oscar for The Social Network. All of those movies explore complex worlds of technology or sports, or both, and yet convey a level of excitement and emotion that is normally not associated with them. If you liked these movies, you will enjoy Molly's Game. (As an aside, Molly's Game is Sorkin's first attempt at directing.)
And, as icing on the cake, there is Jessica Chastain as Molly. She wasn't nominated for her performance here and I don't really understand why. This was maybe not an award winning performance, but it was worthy of a nomination. Her character is complex and Chastain successfully illustrates the difficulties of a woman being successful in a powerful man's world. That in itself makes the performance worthy. She has previously shown talent in movies like Zero Dark Thirty, Interstellar, and The Martian, and securing Oscar nominations for Zero Dark Thirty and The Help. It is said that Molly Bloom herself wanted Chastain to play her.
Molly's Game isn't a perfect movie by any means. But if you are interested in a true story about an intelligent woman figuring out how to control powerful men, this film fills the bill. Along the way, there are terrific lines of dialog and monolog that illustrate the value of good writing.