Review of Molly's Game (2017) by Connor S — 23 Mar 2018

Aaron Sorkin is arguably the most famous screenwriter alive. With his latest movie, Molly's Game, he not only delivers the kind of script he's loved and criticized for, he also tries his hand at being a director for the first time, with interesting results.

Sorkin's writing style is all about rapid-fire, intelligent monologues. Some of his characters' epic rants have gone viral, but other times his writing comes across as pretentiously full of itself. Which way a Sorkin script turns out depends on how directors and actors interpret it. That means it's the performances that make Molly's Game more than anything else. Luckily, Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty) is perfectly suited for the job. She delivers her lines with exactly the right confidence and breathlessness. Her co-star, Idris Elba, likewise is the right actor for a Sorkin script, getting in a few memorable moments of his own, even if I find his attempt at a New York accent vague and unconvincing.

Normally, narration is something I'd recommend a movie avoids at all costs. It's exposition-heavy and spoon feeds information the audience could easily get just by watching the movie. However, making narration be most of the lines in Molly's Game is a risk that mostly pays off. Again, Chastain's expert delivery makes the writing sins forgivable. In fact, the movie feels less like a movie and more like a story being told with a visual aid. That says a lot about Sorkin's shortcomings as a director, but it also shows how magnetic Chastain is. Now I want to hear her voice the audio book of the real life Molly Bloom's memoir.

If Molly Bloom wasn't a real person who really experienced the events of this movie, I'd dismiss it as unrealistic and unbelievable, not just because the plot is outlandish. There are plenty of moments that stretch credibility, probably because Sorkin takes some liberties to preach his message on a variety of social issues, the main one being about women occupying male spaces. It's a shame that the thirsty boys on Reddit can't stop lusting over the chest-baring costume designs, because those costumes actually serve a purpose to show how a woman has to conquer a boys' club. In this regard, Charlotte Bruus Christensen's cinematography is crucial, as she is immune to the male gaze that would reinforce those men's mentality. Clearly, these guys are missing the whole point of the film. It might not succeed in everything it does, and it might not be for everyone, but Molly's Game is otherwise a strong start to 2018.