New Release! Molly's Game (2017)

Director: Aaron Sorkin

An entertaining film that touches on the ever-fascinating world of high-stakes poker, although a film that bears writer/director Aaron Sorkin's fingerprints a bit too prominently in places. It can also be filed under the category of films that could possibly pale in comparison to a well-done documentary.

The story is adapted from the memoir of the titular Molly Bloom (Jessica Chastain), a former Olympic hopeful skier whose athletic aspirations were dashed by a pair of horrific injuries. The highly intelligent Bloom found herself in Los Angeles, where she almost accidentally begins managing a weekly high-stakes poker game for her boss - a fairly unsuccessful and disorganized talent agent who somehow has enough celebrity connections to make the game a hot ticket for poker-loving movie stars. Before long, Molly's administrative skills and acumen allow her to usurp her boss's poker game and run it herself. This is quite lucrative for Molly, but the world of high-stakes poker, even among well-known celebrities, can be a seedy business. The shadier elements of the world begin to cause Molly serious problems. These problems compound until she finds herself arrested and having to decide whether she wants to cooperate with the FBI by giving up all of the information she has on her clients or remain silent and possibly go to jail for several years.

The movie does a nice job combining elements found in earlier classic movies like Goodfellas and Casino, especially in terms of topic, pace and editing. The didactic elements about the world of underground poker are fairly engaging, and the story is packed with colorful characters. Also like those earlier classics, the story clicks along at a brisk tempo, only a few times ever slacking. As one can imagine looking at the cast list, including Chastain, Idris Elba, and more than a few other well-known veteran actors, the performances are strong.

Despite so many strengths, the movie doesn't every rise above "good" for me. One reason is that, like virtually every "based on a true story" movie, the movie's appeal lies a bit too heavily on the fact that it is a true story. If the movie were fiction, I don't know that it would have nearly the same attraction for viewers. This, for me, is often a weakness. Only very creative writers and directors can elevate a true story above its innate appeal. Scorsese is obviously one of the true masters of this, having done it with the already-mentioned Goodfellas and Casino, but also an earlier classic like Raging Bull. Molly's Game, in aping the styles of those movies, doesn't do anything novel cinematically to feel especially fresh.

The initial courtroom scene, one of the first where Sorkin's
sometimes heavy scripting hand can be detected through the
obviously orchestrated gags and verbal tete-a-tete.

A larger problem for me is Aaron Sorkin. Sorkin is obviously an exceptionally sharp writer, as evidenced by his impressive resume of lauded movie and TV show scripts. But at some point several years ago, he entered into a particular category of filmmakers that has actually become a slightly dubious club for me: those who are most famous for their ability to write dialogue. Two others who immediately come to mind are Quentin Tarantino and Joss Whedon. From my view, all three writers have put together some wonderfully entertaining verbal exchanges on film, but all three have also fallen in love with their own virtuosity in this realm. In nearly every one of their last few films, one can sense several moments where the snappy, clever dialogue has actually trumped more important story elements like character integrity or a sense of authenticity of voice. In Sorkin's case, I first noticed this in his HBO show The Newsroom, but it is also obvious in moives like Steve Jobs and The Social Network. Molly's Game is no different, featuring several scenes where Sorkin was probably being too clever and playful for the story's own good. In just one example, Idris Elba's lawyer character Charlie Jaffey is in court with Molly Bloom, though he has not accepted her case. As she is about to be arraigned, he keeps shifting places back and forth next to her, giving her advice, backing away, and repeating the maneuver. It is meant to be a humorous visual and verbal exchange gag, but it ends up being an obvious contrivance that one can see coming all too quickly. There are others, too, and they create the situation of "seeing the writer's hand on the paper" too often, which only serves to take one's mind out of the story.

One other feeling that I can't shake about this movie is that I can't say that I ultimately care much about Molly Bloom. Yes, her story is a unique one, to be sure. But the general stakes never feel terribly high, and she doesn't cut as sympathetic a character as I think Sorkin was trying to construct. Ultimately, as smart as she is, she makes several very foolish and selfish decisions, and she pays a fairly high price for them. Not having read the book, I was genuinely curious about the resolutions to her quite precarious position at certain points, but I can't say that I truly felt much compassion for her plight or any great sense of victory or failure at film's end.

Molly's Game is another one of those movies that I enjoyed seeing, thanks to solid filmmaking and acting, but won't bother to watch again.