Aaron Sorkin’s writing is not quite kabuki theater, though it certainly is a stylized form of reality related to ours, but with rules of its own. Sorkinality, is an alternate dimension where wit and conversational velocity are dialed about two steps beyond what living humans have sustained in the wild. Then, as a wink to our universe, a scene or two will start with two characters taking over each other. Sometimes a director can ride this train all the way to a jackpot of Oscars, as happened with THE SOCIAL NETWORK. Other times, the density of Sorkin superspeak causes it to collapse in on itself, leaving you in a little island of reality too detached from our own, as happened in STEVE JOBS.
Never have we explored the furthest reaches of Sorkinality as we do in MOLLY’S GAME, as this is the first feature film he has not only written, but directed. Well I’m back from the frontier, and am happy to report that Sorkin has delivered the goods. It doesn’t hurt that scaffolding he is working from, his own script adapted from a book by Molly Bloom, is rock-solid, as is Jessica Chastain in the leading role.
As is obligatory in modern day biopics, the film opens with a very dramatic bad bad moment in the character’s life, then goes back in time to fill in the details of how they got there, before catching up and ultimately resolving things. In this case, our bad, bad moment is an FBI raid on Molly’s house, even though by this time she’s long given up organizing poker games for the rich, and has even written a book about it. We then flit between the backstory and the present day, as Bloom explains her story to a lawyer. In the most tedious and unnecessary exchange in the film, the lawyer claims he’s not going to take her case, but come on, he’s being played by Idris Elba, we all know he’s going to do it. Don’t bother us with with screenwriting 101 “oh no I can’t” drama-building bullshit, even if it is done at Sorkin’s machine-gun pace.
In other words, the structure of MOLLY’S GAME is effectively a fully realized Aaron Sorkin fantasy — don’t just show the action, have two characters in extended dialog meta-commenting on the action, along with bonus courtroom action, and double-bonus voiceover with introspection. The result is something akin to duck confit — duck in fatty essence of duck — glorious in small quantities, but unhealthy if over-indulged. Thankfully, Sorkin lands this thing while you are still enjoying it, and well before the queasiness sets in.
I’m not sure there is a better word to describe Jessica Chastain as Molly, other than stunning. Yes that applies to the way she looks in the film, but also to the impact of her performance. Her character at some point decides to (tastefully) weaponize her sexuality, amping up the cleavage and eyeshadow to lure rich men into her empire. She then skillfully manipulates them to her advantage, while hewing to a strict code of behavior. In the process, Jessica Chastain puts herself out there in a way I’ve never quite seen, and sells it completely. It is a strong performance, made even stronger by the fact that she completely carries the film. That isn’t to denigrate the outstanding supporting turns by Idris Elba as her lawyer, Kevin Costner as her dad. It is just that this movie belongs fully to Chastain.
One disappointment is that the famous players in the secret Hollywood poker game are never revealed. Yes, a few are named in the book (the names were public through a court case before Molly revealed them), including Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, and Ben Affleck. I suppose I understand why they weren’t named in to film, because none would agree to play themselves, and who are you going to get to play these guys? Instead we have Michael Cera as a stand-in for the famous people, and a continued underlining of the fact that Molly herself never gave anyone up who’s name wasn’t public. It is serviceable, but one of the few times in cinema history where someone has knowingly taken true events and made them dramatically less interesting for the movie version.
This movie is obvious Oscar bait, and I will say that Sorkin and Chastain wring every possible ounce of drama and empathy out of the source material. But the subject matter itself — the fall of a woman who got rich organizing a poker game for dickish men — is not the kind of thing that people are falling all over themselves to reward. Who cares about that though — MOLLY’S GAME is a compelling story, pure Sorkin brought to life through his own lens, and features an outstanding performance from Jessica Chastain, and that’s a fun time at the movies
- Copernicus (aka Andy Howell). Email me or follow me on Twitter.
