★★★★☆
4 October 2017
A movie review of MOLLY'S GAME. |
“You missed the point by miles, but that’s okay,” Molly Bloom (Jessica Chastain)
From A FEW GOOD MEN to THE WEST WING to THE NEWSROOM to THE SOCIAL NETWORK, writer Aaron Sorkin has created a brand of fast paced, highly articulate dialogue. It is a joy to listen to. His projects have suffered though from the feeling that dialogue is interchangeable, i.e. any of the characters could be spouting it. All his players pretty much sound the same. And look the same. There is a distinct lack of racial diversity to these projects. MOLLY’S GAME redresses these two issues. The characters are distinctive, and there is Idris as co-lead. When you love 1930s screwball comedies such as THE PHILADELPHIA STORY, where words fly like machine gun bullets, it is also a relief that for Sorkin’s directorial debut not only has he not slowed down rate of sentences, but arguably even increased it. Keep up. Thank you for not aiming at the lowest common denominator.
From A FEW GOOD MEN to THE WEST WING to THE NEWSROOM to THE SOCIAL NETWORK, writer Aaron Sorkin has created a brand of fast paced, highly articulate dialogue. It is a joy to listen to. His projects have suffered though from the feeling that dialogue is interchangeable, i.e. any of the characters could be spouting it. All his players pretty much sound the same. And look the same. There is a distinct lack of racial diversity to these projects. MOLLY’S GAME redresses these two issues. The characters are distinctive, and there is Idris as co-lead. When you love 1930s screwball comedies such as THE PHILADELPHIA STORY, where words fly like machine gun bullets, it is also a relief that for Sorkin’s directorial debut not only has he not slowed down rate of sentences, but arguably even increased it. Keep up. Thank you for not aiming at the lowest common denominator.
Based on a true story, MOLLY’S GAME unfolds as an intimate story over a drink might. Back tracks. Anecdotes within anecdotes. Timeline jumps. And it is with skill of narrative structure and actor confidence that all the story plates are kept spinning.
Sorkin goes WOLF OF WALL STREET for his directorial debut. Not Scorsese out of the gate, but the dialogue zings and the tempo is frenetic. You do not notice 140 minutes careen by. One had hoped that David Fincher on THE SOCIAL NETWORK and Danny Boyle on STEVE JOBS schooled Sorkin. MOLLY’S GAME lacks panache. The camerawork is rudimental, and there is too large a reliance on fast editing. Cinematographer Charlotte Bruus Christensen keeps everything looking polished.
Molly Bloom explains in minute detail how she went from ski athlete to running high stakes poker games. This is not CASINO ROYALE simplistic card gambling. Time is taken to explain the rules and techniques and pitfalls. We witness a person with drive and formidable intelligence. “I was raised to be a champion,” she utters. The pushy parent who instilled such a work ethic, college professor dad Larry Bloom (Kevin Costner). He might seem draconian, but tough fathers become a theme running through the story. Wanting the best for your daughter is feminist. While Larry is flawed (daddy issues raise their head for Molly), it is actually a commentary on the patriarchy.
Legal problems bring highly respected lawyer Charlie Jaffey (Idris Elba) into the biopic. Like Chastain, Idris handles the dialogue with aplomb. There is a cutesy courtroom seat swapping sequence as he decides whether or not to represent her. And that goes to the heart of the film: Integrity. You do not often see such a word used in conjunction with a gambling facilitator and a high-priced attorney. MOLLY’S GAME questions assumptions, and shines a light on criminal legal proceedings: It’s not necessarily about justice. (Ava Duvernay’s 13TH and Denzel Washington’s ROMAN J. ISRAEL, ESQ. also show how profoundly flawed the system is.) The hypocrisy of prosecution and laws is shown. The double standards for women. The treatment of women. There is a neat monologue from Judge Foxman (Graham Greene) condemning bankers.
All of this is done with charisma and wit.
Wait till you meet Player X, Michael Cera is on especially douchey form.
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