Molly's Game - Review

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Read Mind on Movies review of Molly's Game. Based on the true story of Molly Bloom, an Olympic-class skier who ran the world's most exclusive high-stakes poker game for a decade before being arrested in the middle of the night by 17 FBI agents wielding automatic weapons. Her players included Hollywood royalty, sports stars, business titans and finally, unbeknownst to her, the Russian mob. Her only ally was her criminal defense lawyer Charlie Jaffey, who learned that there was much more to Molly than the tabloids led us to believe.

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R: December 25th, 2017 | R: 140 minutes | R: R

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Molly’s Game is based on the true story of Molly Bloom, who ran underground poker games filled with high rollers and celebrities after losing her chance of becoming an Olympic skier. This film is written and directed by Aaron Sorkin and stars Jessica Chastain as Molly Bloom who gets arrested by the FBI and hires Idris Elba as her defense lawyer Charlie Jaffey.

I’ll get this off my chest now, I loved this film. Jessica Chastain absolutely crushes this role. There was never a moment in this film that I did not believe she is Molly Bloom and really experienced everything in the film. I trust she will be in the award race this season for best actress and deservedly so.

My favorite aspect of Molly’s Game is the realism surrounding this unbelievable situation. The writing truly makes the film seem like a documentary. The characters and their delivery of lines never portray anything but certainty. Idris Elba has a scene in this film that is incredibly powerful and filled with pages of dialogue, and he never misses a beat. Before this scene my only problem with the film was Elba not having enough screen time, and this scene helped with that drastically. I will admit that I’m a sucker for Idris Elba, but I think it’s a reasonable admiration with the amount of talent and charisma he radiates.

Molly’s Game also has a unique way of telling this story. Jumping back and forth in time, mostly in the period of the poker league but also in current time with her lawyer and also her childhood as a skier with a strict father. Although at first the time jumping seemed a bit abrupt, the writing quickly brings fluidity as Molly’s explanation of events naturally lead to that story being told on screen.

This film also contains much more humor than I initially expected, prompting the theater to laugh out loud multiple times. I thought the film had just enough humor at the right times to add levity to the stresses of running an underground poker league, while never making the jokes seem unnatural to the situation.

Like I said before, I really enjoyed this film. I would highly recommend it to any movie fan. There are high stakes surrounding great characters being portrayed by phenomenal actors, and it all comes together with the writing. Congratulations to Aaron Sorkin on his directorial debut, it’s a good one.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

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Logan (Contributor) is a Texas native and a massive fan of all genres of film. You can find him talking about movies on YouTube as half of the CraZCouple or in line for the latest Star Wars/Comic Book film. Click Here to check out Logan's Articles.