Molly’s Game is Aaron Sorkin’s first time sitting in the director’s chair. Sorkin is primarily known as a writer, penning some of the greatest TV (West Wing) and movie (A Few Good Men, The Social Network) scripts of all time. Perhaps the reason he’s so revered is that he had someone dialing him back when he writes dense, lengthy monologues for his characters. In Molly’s Game, no one is telling him no, so that verbose writing becomes verboser, but more importantly I think Sorkin misses the point about how we should feel about the title character.
Molly Bloom (Jessica Chastain) comes from an elite family in Colorado. Her father (Kevin Costner) raises her to be a professional skier, where she has a freak accident and misses her shot at the Olympics. Rudderless, Molly moves to Los Angeles, where she finds her calling as the poker game organizer for her boss Dean (Jeremy Strong). She uses the star of the table, Player X (Michael Cera) to recruit top worldwide talent to play at these poker games in LA. When things fall apart for Molly there, she sets up a game in New York on her own, but that game gets linked to the Russian mafia and breaks federal laws. So the FBI comes for her, and she seeks the help of Charlie Jaffey (Idris Elba) to help lessen her sentence.
The people eager to watch Molly’s Game are there for the dialogue, and boy does this movie not disappoint. Characters, eager to prove they are the smartest people in the room, spin word webs that any person would be jealous to concoct. Sorkin’s dialogue is a word ballet, and you get swept up in just how beautiful it sounds. A joke will force you to laugh, but only briefly, because another witty turn of phrase is coming. In Molly’s Game, the dialogue is so ratcheted up to 11, that it’s clear no one is really listening to anyone else, in an effort to one up the other. As such, you realize no one of these people is real, but you mostly don’t care, because what you’re listening to is awesome.
What Aaron Sorkin really gets wrong is how we should perceive Molly Bloom. Molly’s Game wants us to really like her, and show us how impressive Molly was as a person. The first 5 minutes shows us she can process geometry, calculus, and physics at an accelerated rate. There’s copious references to how smart she is, and how gifted she was at everything. However, as we learn throughout the story, Molly finds some reason to fail at each of these endeavors she starts. And in each scene, she takes zero personal responsibility for herself. Jaffey repeatedly reminds her of her own hubris and when dressing her down, I found myself agreeing more than disagreeing with Jaffey. But Molly’s Game doubles down on how outside forces have conspired against her, when she’s clearly had every advantage to succeed and made many personal bad choices she’s unwilling to admit to herself. The smugness all over Molly’s Game is extremely offputting and leaves a sour taste in your mouth when you think about the movie after you see it.
Working with Aaron Sorkin must be like your brain on a Stairmaster. Molly’s Game plays like the Writer/Director trying to prove to us he’s one of the best wordsmiths out there. Um, ya think? If not, Sir Sorkin, then you can’t handle the truth! Ok, that line’s pretty great.