Review: Molly’s Game

Jessica Chastain stars as Molly Bloom, whose autobiographical book the film is based on. Bloom is a former Winter Olympian, whose hopes of Olympic glory were dashed in a tragic accident during the 2002 Olympic qualifiers. Driven hard by her shrink father/coach (Kevin Costner) Molly is an ultra-driven competitor, but now her dreams are shattered and she needs to pivot. Instead of the planned route of law school, Molly defers and moves to L.A. soon working as the office manager for a-hole Dean Keith (Jeremy Strong), a real estate guy who eventually gives Molly a gig running his underground poker game. A bunch of high-rollers and famous people attend Dean’s games, which means big tips for Molly. Molly has bigger ambitions though, she’s watching and learning. When she gets an opportunity to run her own high-stakes poker game with a well-known actor (Michael Cera, allegedly playing Tobey Maguire!). For a while, it’s going great and Molly’s able to keep things ‘sorta’ legal. For a while. Molly ends up in serious FBI investigation shit. Idris Elba plays Molly’s confident lawyer, Chris O’Dowd and Bill Camp play a couple of Molly’s regular players, and Graham Greene turns up as a judge.

 

I’m a true crime nut and for many years was a huge poker fan, though I’ve recently lapsed because ESPN’s coverage of the WSOP Main Event has been progressively worse in my opinion over the last 5-10 years (ultra-tight gameplay hasn’t helped its televisual entertainment value either). At any rate, given those two things you’d think I’d be really into this 2018 true crime pic from writer-director Aaron Sorkin (creator of TV’s “The West Wing”, writer of “A Few Good Men”, “The American President”, and “The Social Network”). Sorkin’s directorial debut is based on a true story that seemingly has everything: Poker, crime, a character with scoliosis (which I myself have), the Winter Olympics, Michael Cera allegedly playing Tobey Maguire – how could this not be amazing? Sorkin’s a pretty reliable talent as a screen writer, though I wasn’t a fan of “Malice”, “Moneyball”, or “Steve Jobs”. Unfortunately, it’s yet another example of a film that thinks being based on truth is an excuse for it to trot out something rather familiar. The specifics might be occasionally new, but the overall trajectory of this story is as old as time, and my interest in true crime and poker aren’t quite enough to pull this one over the line.

 

It’s your typical rise-and-fall crime story. It’s not bad – far better than “Hustlers” for instance – it’s just…watchable at best. Some of it is indeed interesting and the performances are mostly very good – Jessica Chastain is particularly excellent. Yes, the real Molly looks more like a raven-haired Gina Gerson type, but in all other facets Chastain completely convinced me in the part. My interest in the story dipped in and out, however. Part of it might be that Sorkin seems a bit more sympathetic towards Molly Bloom than I frankly was. The narration early on suggests a hard-nosed look at Molly (from Molly’s own point-of-view, at least as presented by Chastain’s performance as Molly), and I think Chastain’s casting suggests a fairly unlikeable protagonist to be honest. Chastain is apparently very lovely and warm in real-life, but I find her strong suit is playing closer to the opposite end of the spectrum. By the end though, Sorkin seems to want to take it easy on her. I wasn’t quite down with that, I’m afraid. I also think Chastain and particularly Idris Elba (who is otherwise convincing) have an annoying habit of whispering too much of their dialogue.

 

 

One good thing Sorkin provides is a sense of humour, some of this is very, very funny stuff and I wasn’t expecting it to be. In the supporting cast, Bill Camp is his usual excellent self, Cera is hilariously sleazy, Graham Greene is always great to see, and Kevin Costner does damn good character actor work as Molly’s father even if you’re not quite convinced of Costner as an intellectual shrink. The demanding sports coach side of the character though? That I buy hook line and sinker from Costner any day of the week. He even manages to make a late, out-of-the-blue lecture to Molly, if not organic at least damn well-acted. Look out for a particularly terrifying, vivid cameo by a familiar face (if not name) in A.C. Peterson in a sinister role. I was less impressed by Jeremy Strong, who is starting to seem like an over-actor to me, he comes across as too much of an arsehole to be believed.

 

Most of the performances are really good, some of the material is even extremely interesting. Only some of it, though. The familiar trajectory of this true story stops you from becoming fully engrossed in it. It’s OK but nothing memorable. It’s a near-miss for me.

 

Rating: C+