The story of that of Molly Bloom (Jessica Chastain), a former professional skier who left the sport due to unforeseen circumstances outlined in great detail in the film's remarkable opening sequence. From there, this scholar must grapple with her next steps in life: school? Time off? What will Molly do? She ultimately moves to Los Angeles and through perhaps fate and chance she lands the gig of a bookkeeper in a celebrity poker tournament - a small group of 10 or so millionaires who gather weekly with a $10,000 buy-in.
Molly finds the game quite alluring, and she begins making a generous income almost exclusively based on the tips of these clients (a featured one is played by Michael Cera and is referred to as "Player X," a composite of celebs like Leo and Tobey (we allege)). From here, she climbs the ranks, opens her own club, and begins to increase the buy-ins to include the likes of Russian mob and billionaire art dealers. This is a story as much about the downfall as it is about the entrepreneurial spirit - and seeing Molly Bloom climb the ladder of social class is simply wondrous.
And so goes the film: fragmented timelines jump back and forth between the present in which Molly faces criminal charges, and the past, in which she learns the ropes and proves to be quite a capable businessman. The structure and very basis of the story reminds us of Aaron Sorkin's arguable masterpiece The Social Network in which great young minds come face to face with the law amidst pure creation and drive. The script for "Molly's Game" is no less accomplished, and perhaps might step a rung above Network to become a movie as much about wits as anything else.
Jessica Chastain can do no wrong. Her Molly is aloof, quiet, reserved, and an ever-changing mystery that we as the audience want to solve. She is not without heart, and her scenes with her lawyer, Jaffey (Idris Elba) are both pleasing to the ear and the eyes. This is a great cast. As much as the film explores what makes Molly tick, we still leave the theater asking as many questions about who she is than we had before the film began. Sorkin doesn't seek to tell us what happened, rather shows us the wild odyssey as it unfolded. Nothing more.
For a first-time director, Sorkin balances all the pages of his dense screenplay with a mastery that few directors could match. The movie flies by at 2.5 hours and never once was I bored. With each new moment comes a rapturous addition to an already complex story, and the miracle is that I wanted to keep going. Yes, it's about gambling, and money, and misogyny, but it also has more heart than any Sorkin film has in the past. We see Molly's father (a surprising Kevin Costner) who always pushed her for greatness but grappled with being a good father. Chastain and Costner share a final scene in New York's Central Park that is simply flawless. Later, Idris Elba spells out the themes in a passionate speech on the behalf of Molly who faces years in prison if convicted. There is a particularly careful balance between passion and calculation in our heroes, and there is where I found the film so damned appealing.
Many will argue the film's run time or it's lack of sophisticated directing. I will call every criticism an outright sham. This is a marvelous, highly thrilling and altogether wonderful film that tells us a wild story that is largely true. It's not something you could make up. I won't spoil the ending, but I was left with an intense fascination to learn what happened to Molly Bloom, to ask her about her rise and fall as a business founder from a woman's perspective, any regrets, and any dreams going forward. Nothing is quite spelled out in black and white, and it's that distinct gray area in "Molly's Game" that offered so much more than what was written on the page. In the end, I only wanted to dive deeper into this strange abyss and find out more.
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