CHASTAIN’S AT THE TOP OF HER GAME
Actress holds winning hand in this glamorous, exciting biopic
Watching this biopic of former Olympic skier and “poker princess” Molly Bloom, I was reminded of former U.S. secretary of defence and “whiz kid” Robert McNamara. Stay with me. When he was in the military during the Second World War, McNamara pushed for the devastatingly effective firebombing of Tokyo. Later, as president of Ford Motor Co., he helped make safer cars. The man excelled at whatever he did, for good or ill.
Molly is a bit like that. As portrayed by Jessica Chastain, this driven, brilliant woman was on her way to Olympic glory when a freak accident took her out of competition. She had the grades to get into law school, but decided to take a year off first, and wound up running a high-stakes poker game in Los Angeles. The woman who was planning to practise law ended up skirting the grey edges of illegality.
Molly was eventually indicted by the FBI for taking a rake. This is not an obscure federal horticultural offence, but a gambling crime; like much of the pokerese in writer-director Aaron Sorkin’s brainy screenplay (the flop, the nut, pot committed, etc.), you’ll eventually feel like you know what it means, even if you don’t.
The script doesn’t so much back into the story as sidle up from several angles at once. Early in the movie, we see Molly taking on the services of Charlie Jaffey (Idris Elba), one of those incorruptible lawyers movies are so good at providing. (Film shorthand: He’s got a sweet school-age daughter so we know he’s on the level.) He urges her to turn on her former clients in exchange for a lighter sentence, but she has principles too! Even the movie doesn’t give the real names of any of the players, although it’s an open secret that the smarmy young actor played by Michael
Cera is in fact Tobey Maguire.
But the players, and the game they’re playing, take a back seat to Molly’s story. She is on the screen for just about every frame of the movie, mostly played by Chastain, although incredible look-alikes Piper Howell and Samantha Isler fill in as her younger selves, mostly to demonstrate her fractious relationship with her father, played by Kevin Costner.
And it is very much Molly’s story. She narrates throughout, guiding us through the highs and lows of her life, and occasionally punctuating an anecdote with the perfect punchline. “Sometimes God happens fast,” she says of a deus ex machina moment. Or my favourite: “You know what makes you feel OK about losing? Winning.”
The lines land as though fired from a staple gun; Chastain may have an airbrushed look, but her delivery is tempered steel.
And that patter rattles at such breakneck pacing that if anyone other than Sorkin were directing, this movie would clock in at over four hours.
As it is, the ride is over in two hours and 20 minutes, yet it feels shorter. There aren’t many slow scenes, but if you notice one, take the opportunity to catch your breath.
Because of the personal nature of the story, there are few supporting characters who make much of an impact. Jeremy Strong plays Dean Keith, a mogul (not the skiing kind), who starts Molly on the road to her eventual poker potentate-dom, first swearing her to secrecy. (“’Don’t f---ing tell anybody’ is usually not the beginning of a promising law career,” she remarks wryly.) Irish actor Chris O’Dowd is her most sozzled and besotted player, though the role also serves as proof that he should never try an American accent.
Molly’s wardrobe will evolve from J.C. Penney to Chanel, with about two dozen costume changes along the way. The movie is exciting and glamorous, a peak into a realm few of us will ever enter — although, by the time her story wraps up, even fewer would dare to go there.
Molly’s Game, whether skiing or poker, makes for great spectator sport, but you play at your own risk.
There aren’t many slow scenes in
Molly’s Game, but if you notice one, take the opportunity to catch your breath.