165.
Molly's Game
7.5/10
Molly's game is a film based on the true story of a young. Olympic-class skier, who started to run a poker game for the exclusive and those willing for high stakes. After 10 years, she got caught and arrested, who wanted answers to who the celebs and Russian mob members who were playing the games. Her only ally would turn out to be her defensive lawyer, who would learn that there was a lot more to this woman, than was being reported by the press. Jessica Chastain plays Molly and is a solid 10/10 in the trailer! Idris Elba is the lawyer and along with Michael Cera and Kevin Costner, this could be a decent film. I enjoy a bit of poker from time to time but I wonder if this movie will be a full house or nothing more than decent pair.
The film begins at the top of a ski run, with Chastain's voice giving a voice over as an introduction, telling the audience that everything we are about to witness is true, apart from the names, leaving only her own as the real one. We are about to witness the most important day of her life and her Olympic trails which ends with her having a freak accident and laying at the bottom of the slope unconscious. During the run, we have flash back of how hard he father was on her whilst training. Her father is played by Costner. She has even broken her back whilst younger and still made it back onto the slope. We then jump to her present day, as she is in her home in LA, piles of her book which she has written, are laying about as she gets woken by a phone call from the FBI, telling her that there are about to arrest her. They burst in and arrest her on the grounds of running and illegal gambling ring, which she replies that she hasn't run one in two years. Back to the flashbacks, Molly has moved to LA, wanting to find herself before heading off to law school. She begins as a waitress and catches the eye of a producer, who offers her a job as his assistant. He turns out to be a demanding little prick, no matter the time of day. One night, he asks her to organise a poker game for him. Giving her phone numbers for the players, she sets off to get food and drink for them all. In walk some pretty well-known faces, to her obviously, as we are in the dark, including player X, who is played by Michael Cera, other business men and some of the richest and most powerful around. They are playing with thousands, acting like it is pennies. After the game, these men tip Molly and after gaining thousands, she realises how much she can make.
This film is fast becoming flash back heaven, but for now, we are put back to present day and Molly's meeting with a lawyer, played by Elba. After discussing everything, he feels sorry for her but thinks the whole thing is a mess. That's without the information she is withholding. She is being accused of being in with the Russian mob, but she is adamant that they were only players in her game. He clearly doesn't believe her, pressing for more information, but he is also apprehensive because he knows she is skint. The government has seized all of her earned money, which is how I feel half of the time! She is owed plenty out on the streets though but she is hoping that her main income will be from the selling of her book. He finally agrees to help her with her arraignment and then move her onto someone else. Once in her arraignment, he asks her why she has never collected her debts from the street and her honest answer is that she didn't know how the new debt-holders would collect. With this answer, he reluctantly stands in front of the judge and agrees to take her on as a client. Flashback time! She starts making plenty of money running the game, with her lifestyle changing and it isn't long until her boss, Dean, notices and refuses to keep paying her for being an assistant, as she now makes enough. But she must keep being the assistant or he will take the game from her. She isn't too happy about this and he fires her anyway. Molly isn't the least bit worries as she takes the game for herself, setting it up in a stunning hotel's penthouse suite. The usual faces turn up, such as Player X, who it turns out, it supposed to be Toby Maguire. This guy reveals a stunning trait to Molly, as he loves to destroy other players, taking all of their money and ruining their lives. When he makes a little move on Molly, she rejects and she even confronts him about his playing style. He takes offense and ends up taking the game and players from her, leaving her with nothing. Thinking about quitting, she soon changes her mind and heads to New York to try again, with no one who knows here but when the players start reneging on debts, she starts to take a small amount from the pot, in order to cover herself. This starts a down turn for her and her lifestyle, as she starts taking drugs in order to stay awake for all hours.
She has a chauffeur, who she never ever opens up to, but one day, with things she hard, she tells him about her past life and he asks her whether two of his friends could meet her and discuss the game she runs. When she meets with these too, they turn out to be Italian mobsters, who look for a cut in order to collect debts for her. Maybe this is why she didn't want the debts collecting, she didn't want people hurt. When she declines, a goon is sent to hers to rough her up and steal from her safe. She stays locked away for days, bloodied, bruised and in no mood for anyone. When she finally opens her door, she sees a newspaper that explains about the mob bust, which is the reason that they ever called around again. She is just about to get to a game one night, when she receives a phone call from a player hiding in the toilet. He explains how the FBI have raided the game, to mainly arrest the Russian Mob, which Molly didn't realise were playing. She simply thought they were Russians. That was the day that she quit running games and didn't for another 2 years.
Once more, we are back to the present day, Molly and her lawyer are meeting with the prosecutors, who are mainly after one thing, information on the Mobsters. They don't believe that she hasn't got any evidence against them. She explains that she usually does so much background checks on her players but with the drugs towards the end, she got very sloppy at her job. Charlie, her lawyer, gives a massive speech to the prosecutors, mainly about Molly's character and innocence, to which they finally make an agreement with him. This is immunity and all of her money back, if she hands over the hard drives to her laptops. This is an instant no because there is stuff on there other than the game. Emails from players, asking for an affair, famous people with families that can be ruined, along with careers. He begs her to take the deal, but gets nothing but rejection. She heads outside, ice-skating in the park and as she has some freedom for once, skating too face and not being able to be caught by the workers there, she sees her father standing at the side and she instantly gets distracted and crashes into other people. We cut to them sitting on the bench, with him arriving for her court case. He is a shrink and tells her that he's going to give her the quickest appointment ever. She asks why he was always so mean to her, compared to her brothers, to which his answer is that he knew that Molly found out about the affair that he was having. This led to him being shamed and becoming cruel towards her. He admits that he never stopped loving her and wanting to protect her, but for now, it's back to the case. She refuses to hand over the drive and pleads guilty. The judge himself, finds the sentence, offered by the prosecutors, to be way too harsh. Instead, he pretty much gives her a slap on the wrist and Molly is left to celebrate with her family, left unsure what to do with her new appreciation of life.
The film ends with the opening scene, as Molly lays there, finally coming around and admitting that she is fine. Getting back to her feet and hobbling off with her father. The commentators are astounded by the recovery that she is making. Molly narrates once again, noting that although she has lost a lot, she is learning as life goes on. Quoting Winston Churchill, she pretty much ends with words along the lines of, she will land on her feet somewhere and somehow.
I quite enjoyed this film, being a bit of a sucker for real-life stories, I always find it interesting to know that there are these kinds of people falling into this kind of thing, somewhere out there. There I a lot of back and forth in this movie, but that is clearly needed, as Molly is telling us the story, or telling it too her lawyer and we are being transported back to it, instead of just being told. I'm not too sure as to whether class this as a crime drama, but one thing is for sure, when you're watching this, it's hard not to become intoxicated with the lifestyle, just as Molly was. Chastain does well in playing a woman who clearly wanted to be the best she could, whether through her father's eyes, on her down time or high time, she fought every inch. There is a sense that some of the details would have been held back, no sex or scandal ended up happening? That doesn't seem likely with Hollywood right now. She was the only one doing drugs, not likely. One thing is, I haven't read this book by Molly and probably never will, but this movie was entertaining enough. If Jessica Chastain was wearing one of her dressing and dealing a poker game that I would afford, deal me in!
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