Molly’s Game For Film Night

Hey guys!

So for my latest film night I watched Molly’s Game. I actually wanted to watch this last week, but it’s on for quite a long time (over 2 hours) and I didn’t have enough time. But when I realised it was on for such a long time, I made sure that I was able to watch it, and I’m glad I did.

It’s a film I had never heard of before, and is based on a true story, the memoirs of Molly Bloom who is the main character played by Jessica Chastain. After watching the trailer I thought it looked like a really good story, so decided to sit down and watch it.

So as mentioned the story focuses on a girl called Molly Bloom, who’s a World Class skier, destined for big things and heading for the Winter Olympics in 2002. She go to qualifying, but on her run she hits a pine cone and as a result she has a massive crash, and is severely injured, ending her skiing for good.

She was going to go to law school, but instead opts for a year out, against her father’s wishes, and moves to Los Angeles. She becomes a waitress running bottle service for usual high paying customers, and meets Dean. He is playing at being a hot shot real estate developer but isn’t very successful at all. He decides to hire Molly as his office manager, and then also to run underground poker games. The poker games involve celebrities, sports stars and wealthy guys, and she’s soon making lots of money on her tips.

As she’s managing and looking after the games she becomes knowledgeable about poker, and how the games are run. There’s a player who’s the biggest celebrity, only known as Player X, who’s the guy everyone wants to play with, and she wants to impress. She recruits new players to the games, and as she becomes less reliant on Dean, who tries to control her.

Molly decides to leave and start up on her own, with the help of Player X. But after some games one of the players owes a huge amount, she finds out that Player X has been funding him. She finds it unethical, tells Player X who then in turn tells her that him and the other guys are playing elsewhere, and she’s done.

She decides to try and try her luck in New York, and sets up business there. But there’s a mix of the Italian Mafia, Russian Mafia and people who can’t pay, leaving her financially exposed.

One of her players is indicted for running a Ponzi scheme, and she gets arrested by the FBI, with her assets getting seized. She returns home to live with her mother, and publishes a book, naming a few of the players, and is then arrested for her involvement with illegal gambling. She goes to a high profile and expensive lawyer, Charlie Jaffey (Idris Elba) to fight her case.

There is a lot more to the film and story, but I will leave it there so there’s no too many spoilers. The way it is shot is very good, with going back and forward to different points in time, from when Molly was young and her father was pushing her to ski, to running games and her conversations with her lawyer.

It’s a really gripping crime drama, if you haven’t seen it I can definitely recommend it.