Sassy poker drama overplays its hand
It was inevitable that superstar screenwriter Aaron Sorkin (“The Social Network,” TV’s “The West Wing”) would eventually want to direct. You can’t write eloquently about all-encompassing Type-A personalities without being one yourself.
It similarly goes without saying that Sorkin would one day want to counter the claim that he’s only interested in alpha males, not alpha females.
So here’s his directing debut “Molly’s Game,” a biopic starring Chastain as Olympic hopeful turned poker entrepreneur Molly Bloom. It’s Sorkin at his most Sorkinesque.
He’s got the ambitious protagonist, this time a woman, with Jessica Chastain essentially remodelling her sassy Miss Sloane character from Washington politician to high-stakes card shark, replete with a sexy wardrobe upgrade described as “the Cinemax version of herself.”
He’s got the rat-a-tat dialogue and the slippery slope of an ethical challenge, along with a voice-over narration that forgets that movies are more about showing than telling.
He’s got some great supporting characters: Idris Elba as a skeptical lawyer who isn’t sure whether he can assist Molly (or even if he wants to) when the FBI calls her bluff; Michael Cera as a shifty Hollywood celeb (rumoured to be modelled on Tobey Maguire) who is among Molly’s backroom poker players; and Kevin Costner as Molly’s psychologist dad, who gets to deliver the best here’s-the-deal speech Costner has had since Bull Durham. True to Sorkin’s penchant for numbers and ‘splaining stuff to the masses, “Molly’s Game” also has more how-to info about poker than any movie since “Rounders.”
What all this doesn’t amount to is a completely satisfying cinema experience, least of all one that justifies its 140-minute running time.
The first half is the best, when Molly is fighting misfortune and sexism as she switches careers and locales, moving from Olympic skier to Los Angeles promoter of $10,000-perplayer poker nights, which are dodgy but apparently legal. In word and gesture, Chastain shows how the competitive spirit to excel at all costs is the same, whether on the slopes or on the gaming tables, and both are equally thrilling to watch.
The picture changes when Molly rebels against her greedy poker mentor (Jeremy Strong) and decamps for New York. There she begins an even more lucrative series of games that attract the attention of Russian mobsters and the FBI. Add in a drug habit and life regrets, and you get the movie version of a card player who doesn’t know how to quit when she’s ahead.