Molly's Game
Published 2018-06-17
Film info
- Title Molly's Game
- Director Aaron Sorkin
- Year 2017
- Run time 2hr 20m
- Genres Drama, Crime
- Tagline Deal with her
- Cast Jessica Chastain, Idris Elba, Kevin Costner, Chris O'Dowd
Molly's Game is based on the true story of Molly Bloom, a former Olympic-class skier who ran the world’s most exclusive high-stakes poker game for a decade before being arrested by armed FBI agents. Her players included Hollywood royalty, sports stars, business titans and finally, unbeknownst to her, the Russian mob. Her only ally was her criminal defence lawyer Charlie Jaffey, who learned that there was much more to Molly than the tabloids led us to believe.
Live blog
| Time | Comment |
|---|---|
| 1:49 | Molly Bloom did the knee-killer sport? |
| 5:23 | Wow! I like the huge amount of voiceover there. Great/awful story! |
| 9:20 | It is weird to have retired from a career so early on in your life. |
| 11:13 | Spreadsheet nerd. |
| 13:50 | What kind of music DO poker players like to listen to? |
| 23:53 | Life advice from Kevin Costner. |
| 28:38 | "My goals were to win. At what and against whom, they were just details." |
| 40:13 | Found a quick replacement, didn't he! |
| 42:25 | You'd think a lawyer could be more straightforward about what is and isn't breaking the law. |
| 51:35 | Do hard drives do that? Who knew? |
| 59:42 | Wow, lost the plot and can't pay his debts either. That's a bad day. |
| 1:02:30 | "That's my business... literally." |
| 1:11:28 | Target rich environment. |
| 1:12:35 | I don't know anything about anything but I like the custom chips. |
| 1:18:23 | Love Chris O'Dowd. |
| 1:28:59 | "Wasn't what you'd call... real." |
| 1:31:27 | Central Park view must cost an absolute fortune. |
| 1:45:25 | Love her eye makeup. |
| 1:56:36 | I like three years of therapy in three minutes. |
| 2:00:12 | "It's funny how much faster you can go when you're not charging by the hour." |
| 2:06:30 | I need to read The Crucible then. |
Thoughts
I didn't know anything about this story before seeing the film, so it was something of a revelation! It was a fascinating tale and definitely one worth knowing about. It was good to be able to get through the whole film without being disappointed in our knowledge of poker - we have none but everything was explained that needed to be explained.
Idris and Jessica were both brilliant, and bonus Kevin Costner was the icing on the cake. The only issue with it was that towards the end it really felt like a one-sided story, from Molly's point of view, obviously. So although it explained why she made some of the decisions she did, there was never really any sense that they were bad moves that saw her end up in such an awful situation. It all felt a bit like she never expected any repercussions and felt hard done by.
I don't know, it's hard to explain and probably doesn't really matter. It was a great film and definitely worth watching. Fantastic directorial debut by Sorkin.
Rating: 5 / 5