Molly's Game

You know what you're getting into almost immediately in Aaron Sorkin's "Molly's Game." Anyone familiar with the noted screenwriter's work is already aware that the wordsmith is a major fan of long monologues and snappy verbal debates, and fans will get a mouthful in Sorkin's directorial debut.

Switching between two timelines surrounding real-life poker kingpin Molly Bloom (Jessica Chastain), viewers receive both a dramatized recreation of Bloom's rise to power and the subsequent court case that followed. In the former arc, Sorkin pens the script with a heavy reliance on voiceover narration (dismissers of this exhaustive plot device, be wary). Whipping from clever ruminations to overwrought, pretentious prose, Molly's narration is brought to life and maintains its pulse through Chastain's effortlessly charismatic voice. At times, Sorkin's words feel foreign coming out of her mouth, yet this is often the case with the screenwriter's films. "People don't really talk like that!" is often the major complaint of an Aaron Sorkin screenplay, and buyer beware that "Molly's Game" only intends to up the ante.

Intercut between the plights of Molly's poker empire, Idris Elba enters the picture as the lawyer representing Bloom in a federal prosecution case. These scenes are were fans of "The West Wing" will get their fix, as they basically consist of engaging, though occasionally jargon-filled, dialogues between Chastain and Elba. The actors admittedly have an electric chemistry, but this is often undermined by the visual boredom of Sorkin's directorial eye. "Molly's Game" is a profoundly bipolar film in these regards. In the narration-heavy timeline, Sorkin craftfully complements Chastain's voiceover with editing reminiscent of the quick-cut, playful films of someone like Edgar Wright. But when people are just swapping words, Sorkin opts to lazily cut between the actors, with little blocking effort or insightful shots that further inform the conversations being exchanged. As a result, the court case section, while certainly fascinating, drags and stumbles with aesthetic emptiness.

The accolades here should rightfully be steered towards Chastain, who carries this film on a performance that is at once smart, sexy, intimidating, vulnerable and sad. It's one of her best performances, despite the wordy consequences of being a character written by Aaron Sorkin. Most of the time, Chastain makes Sorkin's unrealistic verbiage feel rich and real. For that purpose alone, give her all the awards.

Albeit this grand performance, "Molly's Game" is still a film that's constantly figuring itself out. It's a promising start for this screenwriter's first time behind the camera, but its freshman errors are undeniable. This is often-engaging entertainment with bursts of unbearable tedium, and the main problem lies in Sorkin's organization of these storylines. The narration's too much, the dialogue's too clean and the directorial eye is far too foggy Its novelistic structure often feels like chapter breaks are required, but without these breathers this 140 minute movie often overstays its welcome.