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Word Games
Aaron Sorkin's directorial debut feels like most of his
projects where he served solely as the writer: it has an air of
intellect presented in a very wordy fashion. Sometimes this technique
works beautifully, like it did in his "A Few Good Men." At other times
it still works, but is a bit too wordy for my taste.
"Molly's Game"
is verbose, incredibly professional looking, and hits all the right
notes at the appropriate times. This makes it a bit formulaic in
addition to accomplishing its goal of telling the story effectively. It
also benefits from being a fascinating look at a woman's exotic life
that is based in truth. As always, there is no way of knowing how close
it is to the truth, though.
Jessica Chastain plays the title character, Molly Bloom, and she also
narrates a good deal, to flesh out Molly and because Sorkin loves lots
of words. Molly has always been driven, with her father (Kevin Costner)
pushing her every step of the way.
As a young woman, Molly was
an ultra-competitive athlete from a family that included a brother just
as ambitious and even more successful. She was one of the top women
skiers. He was the top men's skier. Just as she was about to finally
break through and make it to the Olympics, she suffered a career-ending
injury.
Becoming a lawyer becomes her next goal, but it gets
derailed when she takes a job working as a personal assistant to a guy
she meets. She's not totally clear about her duties, at first, but she
learns that her boss runs private high-stakes poker games. The regulars
include actors, Wall Street bigshots, and well-to-do gamblers.
Molly is a natural and she updates how the business is run by injecting
Excel sheets to track all of the transactions. She becomes so good at it
that she runs afoul of the law and her face and story get splashed all
over the news, turning her into an infamous figure.
"Molly's
Game" jumps back and forth in time, often, as she tells the story to her
lawyer, Charlie Jaffey (Idris Elba), and her story is quite the ride.
It's a solid and sometimes gripping tale and well worth your time. One
problem I had with it is that it looks so good that even when it tosses
in the odd gritty scene, it feels too pretty to look at. Sorkin and
Chastain have given us a good if not great game.
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