She Got Game

Rating: 8/10 (14 March 2018)

Aaron Sorkin (aka The Godfather of dialogue) teams up with the ravishing Jessica Chastain and Idris Elba to bring the crazy true story of Molly Bloom to the big screen. "Molly's Game," based on the book of the same name, chronicles the underbelly of the most exclusive, illegal high-stakes poker game in LA. Sorkin, in his directorial debut, brings his signature fluid dialogue and exceptional writing. Jessica Chastain brings her signature acting chops and amps up the eye candy to glorious effect. Together, they produce one of the best written and most consistently engaging movies of the year.
"Molly's Game" follows the trope of an ambitious and morally questionable person who gambles everything, builds an empire only to have it come crashing down upon them, writes a successful book about it, and even gets a movie adaptation. This has been done many times before, but what helps "Molly's Game" stand out is not only Sorkin's dialogue and Chastain's charisma, but the depth explored between Molly and her complicated father (played magnetically by Kevin Costner). One of the best scenes in the film is towards the end when Molly and her father have an intervention of emotional awakening. It may seem shoehorned in for some old-fashioned father daughter catharsis, but the intelligence and power of the scene are enough to overcome this. Molly's father confronts her on why she chose her path of running an illegal business and calls her out for wanting to control powerful men as a way to get back at him. This scene beautifully breaks down the enigma that is Molly Bloom and is like an orgasm of self-actualization.
The only real flaws of "Molly's Game" are the repetitiveness in the story - could've trimmed the runtime - and the dialogue is so fast it's as if it's sped up. Otherwise, Sorkin and company make what could have been another average based on a true story crime drama, into a marvelously written and acted, fast paced entertainment.