Molly's Game (2017)
Directed by Aaron Sorkin
Written by Aaron Sorkin
Starring Jessica Chastain, Idris Elba, Michael Cera, Jeremy Strong, Chris O'Dowd, Kevin Costner
Release Date December 25th, 2017
Can one scene demonstrate why Aaron Sorkin’s directorial debut, Molly’s Game starring Jessica Chastain falls flat? Probably not, but in this article, I am going to demonstrate how one scene can shed light on the Aaron Sorkin style, why Idris Elba is not really an Aaron Sorkin kind of actor and just who is the Aaron Sorkin style of actor; here’s a hint, they were on The West Wing.
Molly’s Game stars Jessica Chastain in the somewhat true to life role of Molly Bloom, a woman the tabloids came to call ‘The Poker Princess.’ Molly was on her way to the Salt Lake City Olympics as a skier when she suffered a devastating crash injury and was sent into retirement. Instead of going to law school and starting her life, Molly decided to move to Los Angeles, where she goes to work for a high roller who runs a high stakes poker game.
Eventually, Molly takes over the game and begins a multi-million dollar run that came to an abrupt end when the Russian mob began invading her game and leading to the FBI raiding the game and arresting Molly. After Molly wrote a book about her time running high stakes poker games for celebrities, politicians, and tycoons, the FBI raided her again and arrested her.
All of this leads up to the scene we are going to discuss in this article. Molly needs a lawyer, and her fifth choice is Charley Jaffy, played by Idris Elba. Charlie doesn’t want to be Molly’s lawyer, but after a tense interview he can’t help but be intrigued enough to, at least, accompany her to her first hearing. Being that the Russian mob is involved, Charley brings along security and sits one of the beefy guards between himself and Molly.
Find my full length review in the Geeks Community on Vocal
