Molly's Game
Molly's Game is a 2017 American biographical film written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, based on the 2014 memoir by Molly Bloom. The film follows Bloom, a former Olympic-class skier, as she runs the world's most exclusive underground poker empire and becomes the target of an FBI investigation. It stars Jessica Chastain as Bloom and Idris Elba as Bloom's criminal defense lawyer, in addition to Kevin Costner, Michael Cera, Jeremy Strong, Chris O'Dowd, Joe Keery, Brian D'Arcy James, and Bill Camp.
Bloom's poker ring of multi-millionaires and billionaires includes Hollywood movie stars, famous athletes, business tycoons, and, unbeknownst to her, the Russian mob.
Principal photography began in November 2016 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The film premiered on September 8, 2017, at the Toronto International Film Festival, and began a limited theatrical release in the United States on December 25, 2017, by STX Entertainment. It went to world-wide distribution on January 5, 2018, grossing $59 million worldwide.
Molly's Game received positive reviews, with particular praise for Sorkin's screenplay, as well as Chastain and Elba's performances, with that of the former considered one of the best of her career by some critics. The film earned Chastain a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress – Drama, while Sorkin earned nominations for his screenplay at the Academy Awards, Golden Globes, Writers Guild of America Awards, and BAFTA Awards.
Plot
Molly Bloom is a world-class mogul skier with Olympic aspirations, thanks to years of enforced training from her overbearing father. In a qualifying event for the 2002 Winter Olympics, she is severely injured, ending her skiing career.Before using her very high LSAT score to attend law school, Molly decides to take a gap year and move to Los Angeles. While living on a friend's couch, she becomes a bottle service waitress at a club and soon meets Dean, an ostentatious but unsuccessful real estate developer. She becomes Dean's office manager and 24/7 errand girl, catering to the every whim of her brash and offensive boss.
One day, Dean instructs Molly to set up and run his new underground poker games at The Cobra Lounge. The rich and famous are recruited to play, including movie stars, investment bankers, and elite athletes. Molly begins earning large sums of money in tips from the players.
Initially unfamiliar with poker, Molly quickly learns the rules of the game and how to appeal to the players for tips. In particular, she hopes to please the most successful player, a film star named Player X, by attracting new players to the game. Dean becomes frustrated by Molly's growing independence and large tips, while he keeps losing his own poker games. He accuses her of conspiring with another player against him, and then announces that he will no longer pay Molly for her full-time office job. Shortly later, he fires her.
Molly, having contacts through years of running the game, poaches Dean's players and creates her own poker ring. She rents a luxury hotel penthouse and hires staff. Player X and many others leave Dean's games to play at Molly's. Increasingly successful, as Molly gains more money, she is pressured by Player X to raise the stakes. She enlists cocktail waitresses and casino employees to recruit wealthy players and spread the word about her games.
Harlan Eustice, a skilled and risk-averse player, joins Molly's ring. He is initially very successful. One night, after accidentally losing a hand to the notoriously worst player, Brad Marion, Harlan spirals off the deep end. He becomes increasingly compulsive, drinking and betting obscene amounts of money while suffering heavy losses. Hoping to break even, he gambles all night and into the next day, losing his life savings and missing his wife's birthday party.
By the time Harlan stands from the poker table, he has lost a grand total of $1.2 million dollars. He confesses to Molly that he is unable to pay. She encourages him to come clean to his wife, and promises to help him find support for his gambling addiction. Afterwards, Player X approaches Molly and offers to fund Harlan so he can keep playing, but only if Harlan gives him 50% of his winnings. Molly objects to this plan on ethical grounds, and Player X reveals to her that he has been bankrolling Harlan for the past two years. Player X says he enjoys ruining people's lives more than he enjoys the game itself. Molly berates him, saying funding other players creates opportunities for cheating. The next day, in retaliation for this interaction and for Molly not returning his romantic affections, Player X withdraws from Molly's poker ring to form his own. The others join him, and Molly's ring collapses. As she puts it, she "lost the game."
Molly moves to New York City to begin a new underground poker game. After networking with wealthy New Yorkers, Molly finds enough players for regular weekly games. Despite her success in the initial weeks, she fears being unable to cover her losses if players cannot pay. Her new dealer tries to convince her to begin taking a percentage of the pot to recoup potential losses. Molly, who was staunchly opposed to breaking the law before this but is nervous about another Harlan situation, agrees, turning her game into an illegal gambling operation.
Meanwhile, Brad from her previous poker ring is indicted for running a Ponzi scheme, which exposes Molly's gambling operation to federal law enforcement. She is investigated and questioned about who attended her games, but refuses to reveal the names of any players beyond those who have already been named due to her sense of integrity.
As the stress of the investigation and the games begin to take their toll, Molly becomes increasingly addicted to drugs. Her judgement is affected and she becomes less cautious, allowing wealthy members of the Russian mafia to join her games.
Molly's personal driver and security guard arranges for her to have a meeting with friends of his. These friends turn out to be the Italian mafia, who demand a share of her profits in exchange for "protection". After Molly declines, she is attacked in her home. A mobster in a suit savagely beats her, slams her head against the wall, and holds her at gunpoint. He threatens to kill her and her mother if she does not cooperate with their demands. He also forces Molly to turn over the contents of her safe, including large amounts of cash and expensive jewelry. He leaves Molly with serious injuries, bleeding and unconscious. Unable to go to a doctor or hospital due to the suspicion it would arouse, Molly spends the next 10 days alone in her apartment healing from her injuries. Upon re-entering the world, she sees a newspaper headline about 125 members of the mob getting arrested.
As Molly is getting ready to return to her poker games, she gets a call from Douglas Downey, a player who is infatuated with her. He confesses that he became an FBI informant in exchange for his criminal record being wiped, and he has now informed the FBI about Molly's gambling ring. Although Douglas asked for Molly to be spared due to his feelings for her, Molly is arrested by 17 armed FBI agents, and the contents of her bank account are seized by the government. Broke, homeless, and facing criminal charges for illegal gambling and mafia involvement, Molly returns home to live with her mother.
Molly decides to publish a book about her story. Although she receives several lucrative book/movie offers in exchange for using the players' real names, she refuses all of them, not wanting to ruin anyone's lives or break up any families. She names only the few players whose names were already part of the public record.
Molly has trouble finding an attorney to represent her. Several attorneys in the area are already representing her co-defendants, and she does not have any money to pay legal fees. She asks around for a referral for any attorney who used to work in the prosecutors office and is "not even a little bit shady." They direct her to Charlie Jaffey,
Charlie is a high-profile lawyer in New York City who is initially reluctant to help her. However, his young daughter has read Molly's book and begs him to take her on as a client. He agrees to represent her just at her arraignment, but mid-arraignment, decides to be her full lawyer. Charlie finishes reading Molly's book and becomes more interested in helping her case, as he feels she has not committed serious enough wrongdoing to merit prison. He admires her integrity, but disagrees with her choice to protect people's names, believing that information could be useful leverage in a plea deal. This is a point of contention between them.
Charlie and Molly meet with the prosecutors working on Molly's case. He negotiates a deal for Molly to receive complete immunity and all of her money back, in exchange for her hard drives and digital gambling records. Molly declines this deal, fearing that the information about her players would be released and destroy lives.
Molly goes ice skating. She doesn't have enough money to rent skates, so offers the girl behind the counter her $800 designer gloves instead. "Are you okay, miss?" the girl responds. Molly puts on the skates and races around the rink, channeling her skiing instincts. She recklessly weaves in and out of the crowd, scaring fellow patrons and earning the disapproval of the guards, who ask her to stop. Molly taunts them and says they'll have to chase her. She picks up speed and glides around the ice, until she sees her estranged father and is so shocked that she slips and falls.
Her father has come to find her and reconcile, after years of not speaking to each other. He knows she is awaiting trial in New York and has read her book. Molly doesn't want to talk to him at first, but he says he's not there as her father, but rather in his profession capacity as a very expensive psychologist giving her one free session. He gives her "three years of therapy distilled into three minutes." They have a heart-to-heart about their difficult relationship growing up and Molly's struggles in life. Molly asks why he treated her differently from her brothers. He admits he was overbearing and treated her differently because she knew he was cheating on her mother, and he expressed his shame as anger. He believes Molly was drawn to the world of high-stakes poker because her true addiction was "having power over powerful men."
Later in court, Molly pleads guilty, insisting on owning up to her actions to preserve the integrity of her name. The judge, deciding that Molly had not committed any serious crimes, sentences her to 200 hours of community service, one year of probation, and a $200,000 fine.
The last scene of the film is a flashback to Molly's skiing accident years earlier. She is lying on the snow, unconscious and bleeding. She wakes with her father above her, surrounded by a crowd of spectators. When she tries to sit up, they insist that she lie back down and rest some more. Molly, always tenacious, brushes herself off and stands back up.
Production
Development
On November 12, 2014, Mark Gordon's The Mark Gordon Company bought the feature film adaptation rights to Molly Bloom's memoir, Molly's Game, which Gordon produced. Aaron Sorkin was hired to adapt the memoir into a screenplay. Bloom had already approached Sorkin, as he was her "favorite writer". On January 7, 2016, it was announced that Sorkin would make his directorial debut on the film, for Sony Pictures Entertainment, while Amy Pascal also produced. With this being his directorial debut, Sorkin specifically worked very closely with his cinematographer, Charlotte Bruus Christensen. On February 18, 2016, Sony exited the project, and on May 13, 2016, STX Entertainment came on board, and subsequently bought the film's US and Chinese distribution rights for $9 million.Casting
On February 18, 2016, Sorkin offered Jessica Chastain the lead role in the film, but the negotiations between them had then not yet begun. On May 6, 2016, Idris Elba joined the film to star alongside Chastain. Sorkin stated that "the casting of Jessica and Idris in the two lead roles is any filmmaker's dream come true, they're two of the greatest actors of their generation, paired for the first time, and their chemistry will be electric." On September 7, 2016, Michael Cera joined the cast as Player X, a celebrity poker player. On October 17, 2016, Kevin Costner joined as Molly Bloom's father, and on October 21, 2016, Brian d'Arcy James was added. On November 9, 2016, Chris O'Dowd, Jeremy Strong, Bill Camp, and Graham Greene joined the cast as well.Molly Bloom herself discussed Chastain's portrayal of her character with ET Canada stating, "We spent a little time together. She didn't have much time for prep or research," Bloom told ET Canada's Matte Babel. "I was blown away by her performance by how right it was and how deep and understood I felt by her performance."
Filming
Principal photography began on November 9, 2016, in Toronto. Production concluded on February 9, 2017.Release
Molly's Game premiered on September 8, 2017, at the Toronto International Film Festival. It was also the closing film at AFI Fest on November 16, 2017, replacing All the Money in the World. It began a limited release in North America on December 25, 2017, before expanding wide on January 5, 2018. The film was previously slated to be released on November 22, 2017, before being moved to the Christmas date in October 2017.Reception
Box office
Molly's Game grossed $28.8 million in the United States and Canada, and $30.5 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $59.3 million.On Christmas Day, the film debuted with $1.04 million from 271 theaters. In its first full weekend, the film grossed $2.3 million, finishing 13th at the box office. The film expanded wide on January 5, 2018, alongside the opening of Insidious: The Last Key, and was projected to gross around $6 million from 1,608 theaters in its opening weekend. It ended up debuting to $6.9 million, finishing 7th at the box office. The following weekend it dropped 44% to $3.9 million, finishing 11th. In its third week of wide release the film grossed $1.7 million, finishing 19th.
The film also grossed a total of $4.5 million in France and $5.3 million in the United Kingdom.
Critical response
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 82% based on 304 reviews, with an average rating of 7.10/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Powered by an intriguing story and a pair of outstanding performances from Jessica Chastain and Idris Elba, Molly's Game marks a solid debut for writer-director Aaron Sorkin." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 71 out of 100, based on 46 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.Peter Debruge of Variety praised Sorkin's script, saying, "... Molly's Game delivers one of the screen's great female parts — a dense, dynamic, compulsively entertaining affair, whose central role makes stunning use of Chastain's stratospheric talent." Mike Ryan of Uproxx gave the film 9/10, writing, "Molly's Game is a perfect story for Sorkin. There's poker, the Russian mafia, the Italian mafia, celebrities, and sports. The only thing missing for Sorkin's wheelhouse is President Bartlet. And at over two hours long, the film still feels tight and never fails to entertain."
Writing for Rolling Stone, Peter Travers gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, saying, "Molly's Game bristles with fun zingers, electric energy and Sorkin's brand of verbal fireworks – all of which help enormously when the movie falters in fleshing out its characters. Still, in his first film with a female protagonist, the writer-director has hit on a timely theme: the tribulations of being a woman in a man's world." Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter praised Chastain's portrayal of Molly Bloom, saying "Chastain roars through the performance with a force and take-no-prisoners attitude that keeps one rapt." McCarthy also stated: "Sorkin keeps things rolling relentlessly and gets fine results from the actors down the line . The film looks sharp and a trio of editors keeps thing pacey despite the 140-minute running time." It concluded: "One strong woman and many rich men make for a good show."