Review of Molly's Game (2017) by Frame R — 28 Mar 2018

Jessica Chastain goes after gold with underwhelming results!

MOLLY'S GAME.

In light of recent Oscar nominations, I plan to review all of the nominees from the main categories. This is a movie that I watched some time ago and decided to do a quick review. Now, Molly's Game is Aaron Sorkin's directorial debut and damn, it's not the kind of homerun you see in Moneyball... I personally think that, although Sorkin's screenplays are not extraordinary, he has a knack for good, fast-paced dialogue that is always propelling the plot forward. But I also think that the reason his dialogue has gotten so much praise so far was because it was brought to life by directors like Fincher and Boyle who run circles around Sorkin when it comes to doing the old point and shoot. Yet, we should be able to tell apart a good script from a script that is so extensive in length and in dialogue that you can't help to be overwhelmed by all the information. There's absolutely nothing inovative about this movie's script - not the oversuse of narration, not the structure, not even the actual dialogue he ejects ruthlessly to our faces knowing perfectly well that we are unable to soak it all in. But in other movies it was done in a way where the subject matter was easier to digest or we considered the dialogue in a gestalt-kind of way, where you took out just the jist of it. And Sorkin's direction is less than wonderful, it's shaky and it's unfortunately as hyperactive as his script. It tries too many things that he clearly wanted to try just because he appreciated them in other movies, so it's unfocused and amateurish but not in a delightful kind of way. It overcuts within the scene and within scenes, it's irregular and it's mainly held together by good performances and a captivating story. However, it's not enough. It has many great moments and a sense of claustrophobia that is well managed but none of the scenes have room to breathe. It has too much storm and not enough calm before the.