Review of Molly's Game (2017) by Alex G — 08 Jan 2018

Well acted and clever dialogue. Oddly though, the movie seems desperate to sell you on the idea that Molly is a hero, and someone not at fault for her bad choices. At every point in the movie you are reminded that her lawyer (fictional character) is someone as clean as they come and only takes on good people and just causes.

We are reminded that the lawyer's daughter (also fictional, and framed as the young genius we all want our daughters to grow up to be ) wants to grow up to be just like Molly, her hero. We are told that because casinos are evil and Wall Street is evil, her actions can't be that bad.

We are told her family life put her on this path, as well as a 1 in a million error that took away the life she had built. It all could be true, but the way they tell us this all feels so unbelievable that you start to doubt the honesty of the narration.

It's strange because we don't need Molly to be a hero (or even an antihero) to make her story great, but it seems so distracting by this goal that it starts feeling cliche and fantasy. Looking up the making of the movie afterward, it would seem the real Molly was heavily involved throughout--which makes this movie feel even more like a propaganda piece then it had before.

I liked it, but it also felt untrue in a classic (let's make this person into a her) Hollywood way.