Molly’s Game stars Jessica Chastain and Idris Elba, and was written by Aaron Sorkin, who wrote A few good men and also was the writer for The West Wing. This is also Aaron Sorkin’s directorial debut.
The plot is about the true story of Molly Bloom who ran an exclusive high stakes poker game. Players included Hollywood celebrities, famous athletes, and the Russian mob. The FBI raids her game and arrests her, and the movie is about how her legal fight against the government, and how she never reveals the names and information about her players.
One interesting tidbit about the movie is that one of her players, known as Mr. X, who is played by Michael Cera, is supposedly based on Toby Maguire. Some places have suggested that he’s not exactly Toby Maguire, but loosely based on him, and might even be an amalgamation of multiple characters. I thought it was interesting, to think of Toby Maguire as a malicious high stakes poker player, in real life.
I wanted to like this movie, but unfortunately, I don’t think it was that well made. There was no real sense of intrigue or suspense. There was, to be quite honest an overwhelming sense of boredom. And as a movie aficionado, after reading everything about how amazing a writer of dialog Aaron Sorkin is, the dialog was just a bit too much in certain places. Nobody in real life talks like that. The dialog is almost too rich, almost cloyingly rich. After a while, I just couldn’t take it anymore. And I couldn’t wait for this two and a half hour legal drama tedium, to end.
I actually had difficulty going through certain scenes without ripping my eyes out. There was a father daughter scene with Jessica Chastain and Kevin Costner, that was so ridiculous, there should be category created for “worst movie scene ever.”
Should you watch this movie? I love movies based on true stories, and I love poker, and everything about it, and I still don’t think I can recommend it. Molly’s Game gets a 5 out of 10.