MOLLY’S GAME
Director: Aaron Sorkin
Stars: Jessica Chastain, Idris Elba, Kevin Costner, Michael Cera, Jeremy Strong, Chris O’Dowd, Brian d’Arcy, Bill Camp, A. C. Peterson
Rating: (R13)
★★★★ (out of five)
A world-class moguls skier, Molly Bloom (Jessica Chastain), is seriously injured in an Olympic trial, ending her hopes and career as a skier. Deciding to take a year off, Molly moves to Los Angeles and gets a job as an office manager in a real estate firm.
She stumbles into the world of high-stakes poker after her boss Dean Keith (Jeremy Strong) asks her to organise his underground poker games for him and realises there is money to be made, and a lot of it.
She works hard to make the games more appealing, bring new players in and keep the high rollers happy, but Keith fires her when he realises how driven and independent Molly is. Undeterred, Molly entices the players to leave Dean’s game and take part in a new game she has set up.
For a time it seems a great lark, watching alpha males with money to burn playing each other in a constant round of pass the chips, but as Molly’s awareness of what was really happening at the tables increases, she comes to hate her role in it all — but not enough to stop, as the money is simply too good — and turns to drugs to ease her guilt.
When her game in LA goes bust, she moves to New York and starts afresh.
Everything is going well until the FBI and Russia and Italian mafia begin to pay attention to her games ...
- Christine Powley
