A Business Built on a House of Cards

Jessica Chastain and Idris Elba in "Molly's Game"
Photo Credit: Imdb.com

Aaron Sorkin’s a screenwriter whose narratives thrive on the power of his words, immersing audiences in their dialogues and letting us experience his passion for the craft.  He’s proven himself to be one of the best in the business with such films as “Steve Jobs,” “Moneyball” (which he cowrote with Steve Zaillian), “The Social Network,” “The American President,” and “A Few Good Men.”  With these films, it’s impossible not to get swept up in his scripts, such is their intoxicating impact.

Sorkin now makes his directorial debut with the crime drama, “Molly’s Game,” which he’s also written.  While the film doesn’t quite reach the peaks of his previous films, this is nevertheless an absorbing, exciting, and detailed look into the world of underground poker.

Molly Bloom (Jessica Chastain) is a young woman who, upon moving to Los Angeles, begins hosting high-stakes poker games in a hotel suite and eventually brings her business to New York City.  For almost a decade, she makes a name for herself amongst her players, but is then arrested by the FBI.  She soon must work with her lawyer, Charlie Jaffey (Idris Elba), as she faces federal charges.

Jessica Chastain delivers a commanding and ferocious performance as a businesswoman taking charge of her new calling.  She’s an individual who displays a refusal to back down and works hard to secure the prosperity of her empire.  Behind all of that, she has a fierce loyalty to her clients, refusing to let go of evidence that could ruin their lives.  Although she has an abundance of business savvy when it comes to reaching the top, none of that gets in the way of Molly protecting her players, and Chastain exemplifies her character’s unwavering ethics as she becomes a new top player in her industry.

Idris Elba is wonderful in his role as Molly’s lawyer.  His character shows a commitment to understanding Molly and why she takes certain courses of action in her poker ring, eventually constructing a bond of professionalism with her, and this is strengthened by his and Chastain’s effortless on-screen chemistry.

Sorkin’s screenplay, which is based on Bloom’s memoir, “Molly's Game: From Hollywood’s Elite to Wall Street’s Billionaire Boys Club, My High-Stakes Adventure in the World of Underground Poker,” provides a vast amount of intrigue into the world of the game.  As someone who has never played poker in his life, I was fascinated by how these players dealt their hands and what their thought processes were as they decided what move they were going to make next. 

Despite the movie following a similar structure to that of “The Social Network,” where it transitions back and forth between the main character’s business endeavors in the past and her legal issues in the future, it still works because we’ll have one event taking place during Molly’s business venture, and then we’ll have the movie jump forward to Molly and Charlie discussing how that event will impact her court proceedings.

Although the film’s use of voiceover narration is useful in the scenes where Molly is explaining some of the intricacies of poker and the hands that her players deal, the use of it in many of the non-poker scenes could have been lessened.  Seeing as Sorkin’s previous screenplays don’t use any narration, I’m sure he could have found a way to avoid it for this film.

Sorkin’s direction is competent throughout, but he doesn’t make many creative choices with it.  Two of his latest screenplays, “Steve Jobs” and “The Social Network,” have distinct visual styles that make certain scenes memorable.  While there are many fascinating scenes in “Molly’s Game,” they would have been improved if the camerawork was a little more cinematic.

However, when it comes to Sorkin’s direction, I’ll say that he still manages to keep the exchanges between his characters rich and captivating.  It’s impossible to film a scene with a cast using Sorkin’s dialogue and make it boring, so at least the heart-pounding greatness of his words still comes through from scene to scene.

Despite “Molly’s Game” not quite being Sorkin’s top-tier screenplays, it still has that “Sorkin” feel to it, where you watch the movie and can detect how much dedication he put into learning about his subject and bringing her story to the screen.  And if he’s given the chance to direct another movie, I’m sure he will be able to develop his own unique style that’ll match the quality of his words.  Whatever his next project may be, whether as a writer, director, or both, I say deal me in. 

Final grade: B+