Director: Aaron Sorkin

Starring: Jessica Chastain, Idris Elba, Kevin Costner, Michael Cera, Jeremy Strong, Chris O’Dowd, J.C. MacKenzie, Brian D’Arcy James

Written by: Aaron Sorkin and (based on the book) Molly Bloom

Running Time: 140 mins

Cert: 15

Release date: 1st January 2018

After about 5 minutes of watching Molly’s Game, I concluded that I would enjoy this film a lot.  It’s not something that happens to every movie I watch, but there was something special about that pre-credit sequence. It involves a voice-over describing the worst thing that can happen to a sportsperson in their career. Doesn’t exactly sound like the most awe-inspiring sequence, yet the way the words merge, move around and are delivered, along with some reasonable visuals, just made me feel comfortable. Once we got the payoff, I realised then that this was going to be a terrific piece of cinema. I wasn’t wrong.

Molly Bloom had the opportunity to become an excellent freestyle skier, but a freak accident ended that dream. Heading to LA, she found a job in a cocktail bar, leading to working for a man who ran a high-stakes poker game. Molly, a woman with a high IQ who was putting her journey to law school on hold, used her wit and guile to start her own empire of poker games, only to find that once you are playing in the world of money, the law comes sniffing around, leading Molly to hire lawyer Charlie Jaffrey to protect her from being connected with the Russian Mafia.

Written and directed for the first time by Aaron Sorkin, you know immediately that this film relies more on words than actions. Sorkin loves long dialogue scenes, as proven in other scripts and his TV series, The West Wing. He also loves characters, and while these scenes of long conversations are played out, you get to understand what makes these people tick. Sorkin can take a simple scene of two people talking and turn it into a word of majestic art while still making every word believable.

Based on the true story of a woman who became the Poker Princess, running games in hotels that started out being legal and being betrayed by the players who came, Sorkin is less interested in the actions that occur but more about Molly and who she became, while never diminishing on the events within her life. Molly is a smart lady who is far more intelligent than the men who play at her tables, never compromising on her ethics of allowing them to get any closer than a hello or goodbye. Yet, they constantly betray her when she does nothing more than advise.

The film’s strong points occur in the scenes between Molly and her lawyer, Charlie Jaffrey. This is where Sorkin really comes into his own, firing witty and sharp lines of dialogue that could quite easily come from the movies of the 40’s. In a time where talk interrupts the action, it’s refreshing to go into a Sorkin film and be treated to joys for the ears. What also works is Sorkin’s way of playing with time. Instead of giving us a straightforward A to B to C story, he scrambles it up, and it still makes sense.

If there is criticism, it’s that at 140 minutes, it does feel slightly too long, and some scenes could have been trimmed or lost altogether. It also relies on poker techno-babble, which may lose you if you are not a fan. Yet these are minor quibbles in a film that refreshingly allows an actress to play tough and cool without once being a smart-alec or raising a fist.

In that central role, Jessica Chastain is simply magnificent. I have always regarded Ms Chastain highly, and she doesn’t let me down here. Sassy and smouldering like some Hollywood star from days gone by, she commands the screen with ease. Even her voice-over, which is a trait that sometimes can become annoying, is flowing and matches perfectly the mood of the piece. It is a first-class performance from an actress who gets better and better with every film. Finally, Idris Elba plays a character who shows his true acting prowess. Last year, he starred in a couple of disappointing films. Here, he shines as Charlie. Bantering with Chastain is a joy to behold, and one particular scene where Charlie verbally attacks a prosecutor out to destroy Molly is a scene worth the price of admission alone.

Molly’s Game is an impressive start to the new year. It is a film that treats its audience as adults with characters you care about and is a fascinating story. Sorkin is a true wordsmith, and I, for one, will cue up to listen to those words performed by actors who understand their power.

4/5