★★★½

It's an appropriate time for a story about a strong-willed, intelligent, and powerful woman. Back on the scene with what is also his directorial debut, Aaron Sorkin tells us the true story of Molly Bloom (Jessica Chastain), an ex-professional athlete who ends up running the largest underground poker pool in the world.

The narrative moves seamlessly between past--consisting of some scenes from her youth, but mostly, the poker glory days--and present, which shows Molly now faced with felony charges roughly 2 years after the games ended. She seeks out Charlie Jaffey (Idris Elba) as her lawyer, and as they work together to create a defence, we delve back into the past to learn how exactly Molly got where she did.

Jessica Chastain, Idris Elba, and Kevin Costner (Molly's father) gave wonderful performances that ensured audience interest in every single word they delivered. I thought that Michael Cera was questionable casting for high-stakes poker king Player X, simply because it's Michael Cera. I felt the character didn't totally suit him. It also felt out of place to see Joe Keery of Stranger Things fame play Trust Fund Cole who spends all his time in a luxurious New York suite to throw his parents' money into poker. Neither of them were bad, just surprising to see them in these specific character roles and settings. Overall, performances in the film were well-done.

They made a thorough attempt to explain poker throughout the movie, with simplified language and diagrams and everything. I still don't understand a thing about poker. However, it didn't really hinder any understanding of the film itself--whenever the actual poker playing affected the plot, you always got the gist of what was going down. So it really wasn't a problem. The only downside to this is the parts of the film which did heavily focus on the game itself tended to drag on a little bit. The film also almost spanned 2.5 hours, which seemed a little long, but the events were always steadily progressing and most details seemed to assist the storytelling in some way. 

All in all, the film was well done and really touched on the significance that lied at the root of Molly's story. As it was revealed in the film itself, Bloom had previously turned down 5 offers for film adaptations of her book (which, of course, this movie was also based on). The problem was Hollywood's ultimate desire to merely expose the names of big celebrities who played poker under Molly. Molly's Game was rather about a woman who wanted be in control, and what the rewards and consequences that come with this desire. This approach proved to be the right one: her character's intelligence and resiliency were all the audience needed.