Surprisingly inspiring story.

Rating: 9/10 (13 February 2018)

As much as I liked Dunkirk, I think this may be my favorite movie of 2017. Aaron Sorkin was the thing that attracted me in the hopes I would get something that was almost as good as the Social Network. I expected it to be smart, brilliantly written, and deep in character. What I did not expect to get was an empowering story of an incredibly cool person. Honestly, I think Molly Bloom may be the coolest character of the year, which is saying something considering that she has Logan, Baby from Baby Driver, and Chris Washington and Rod Williams from Get Out as competition.
Both in the trailer and in the movie, it seemed like major plot points and even the ending was given away far too early on, leaving no room for suspense or mystery. But this turns out to not be true, because the movie is not so concerned with the "what" as it is with the "why". I think Molly even uses the term "spoiler alert" when discussing her book with Charlie. Despite this, the story is very well-paced and engaging to watch.
There were two things that really blew me away about the story of Molly Bloom (thus far). First is how much Molly takes pride in her work. There is no real end that she seemed to be trying to achieve from her poker game, it was just a life she enjoyed. She is firm in her way of doing things, running clean and legal games, which in itself makes her kind of the Don Vito Corleone of underground poker. Just the fact that she was able to keep her waitresses and employees from getting into any relationships with the players was impressive. Second is her refusal to use the names of the celebrities that she interacted with. There are so many people who probably would have given up the names, and it even sounds as though it would have been in Molly's best interests legally to give them. I just thought it was so cool that she would take the path less travelled in that situation. Were the story fictional I would have thought it was overly convenient that Molly was let off easy in the final court case, but since it is real it just made the movie that much better.
Aaron Sorkin's writing is not as impressive here as it is in the Social Network, but he proves himself as a more than competent director in his first attempt. I know that people get annoyed at the various "Sorkinisms", but I can't think of any of these that showed up outside of one character ordering an appletini. He doesn't have as much flashy writing or snappy dialogue, but it's still a great screenplay. He also gives us a very memorable opening scene, and brought an incredibly inspiring though flawed figure to life for audiences to root for. Even though I do not like Jessica Chastain as an actress, I thought that both she and Idris Elba gave great performances that should have been nominated for Oscars.
I would recommend that just about anyone see this. It's a pretty light R, nothing really disturbing or intense in any regard. But it is a story that you won't forget easily, and its a pretty entertaining and interesting ride while you're on it too. It may not be a masterclass on how to adapt a true story, especially because it's a recent true story, but other movies of its kind would do well to emulate it. It's hard sometimes to end a biopic of a person who is still alive, but I loved the way it was done here with the "what will I do now?" posed as almost a challenge rather than a question. Overall Rating: 8.5/10.