Day
132 Molly’s
Game [2017]
Screenplay Aaron Sorkin
Based on ‘Molly’s Game: The True Story of the 26-Year-Old
Woman Behind the Most Exclusive, High-Stakes Underground Poker Game in the World’
by Molly Bloom
Director Aaron Sorkin
Cinematography Charlotte Bruus Christensen
Music Daniel
Pemberton
Leads Jessica
Chastain, Idris Elba, Kevin Costner, Michael Cera, Chris O’Dowd, Jeremy Strong,
Bill Camp
Production The Mark Gordon Company, Pascal Pictures, Ciwen
Pictures, Huayi Brothers Pictures, STXfilms
IMDb 7.5/10
Rotten Tomatoes 82%
Can
someone please enlighten me as to why Idris Elba is such a popular actor? I do
not rate him at all in anything except for The Wire, Luther and maybe RocknRolla
if I’m being generous. I just had to get that off my chest as I felt the
casting in this wasn’t good, apart from the awesome Jessica Chastain who of
course plays Molly Bloom, poker princess. The long-winded title of the book
this film is based on tells you all you need to know about the plot. I don’t
know how true to the book or to the truth this film stays but it’s a cool story
despite the horribly cheesy moments. You’ve got to be careful when making a
film with the main character narrating not to make them sound showy and I’m
afraid at times I was squirming in my seat. I think the ‘I’m very hard to kill’
line got me the worst. The whole notion of the fact she’s falling on her sword
is stupid, she was in the wrong, doing something dodgy – what did she expect? For
large portions at the movie she seems surprised that she was ever in the wrong
because she was doing everything ‘legally’ due to taking tips rather than a
rake. I mean come on Molly, you attack these men at the start for taking the
power away from you and then you take it right back yourself. It also annoyed
me how much she felt the need to protect these men to save her name. These men
had been doing horrible things and they probably deserved to have their lives
ruined and yet she protected them for the respect of her name? She is an
enabler. Poker is a great game, so I couldn’t help but love the whole film just
for that reason. The bit where ‘Bad Brad’ wins a hand by mistake was gold. I
also really enjoyed that this film contained no romantic element to it. You
would have thought that the beautiful poker hostess would have found a man
along the way, and even if she didn’t Hollywood might have written it in, but
no the film is about Molly and Molly alone. There is no man helping her with
her problems or making her a sexual object. Too many films have that cliché and
I was glad Sorkin didn’t write anything in. It’s a decent film but there was
too much cheese and self-righteousness along the way.
Acting 2.5 / 4
Writing 3 / 4
Cinematography 2.5 / 4
Music 2 / 4
HWF rating 2.5 / 4
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