Jessica Chastain shines in this brilliantly written, albeit slightly long bio-pic.
The true story of Molly Bloom, an Olympic-class skier who ran the world's most exclusive high-stakes poker game and became an FBI target.
Aaron Sorkin is an excellent TV writer, known for The West Wing and The Newsroom and it feels like he hasn’t changed his format for cinema. He’s written excellent characters and dialogue, but it almost seems as if this is a miniseries played on a bigger screen. He’s, as always taken a number of liberties when adapting the true story for the cinema, but for dramatic purposes this is forgivable. This also marks Sorkin’s directorial debut and while he seems to bring out the best in his actors a trimmed running time could’ve easily tightened the films two and a half hour runtime.
The actors are incredible. Jessica Chastain commands the screen as Molly, we see an icon created and destroyed. Her voice overs are two excellent and the don’t at all feel forced or cliched. This role gives her a huge opportunity to once again demonstrate her incredible talent. Idris Elba gets significantly less to work with, but is, as always strong.
Overall despite some directorial errors and a slightly too long runtime the performances and story make this film a worthwhile watch.
4 Stars
Review by Benjamin Maio Mackay
Screening courtesy of eOne Entertainment