A Film Addict Reviews! Molly’s Game

Films that are based on true stories could always be embellished due to how the studio wanting to dramatize it. Also, films like those are also missing some vital pieces are rush through things just for the sake of telling the story. Molly’s Game would probably benefit from one.

2018’s Molly’s Game is about Molly Bloom (Jessica Chastain), who made high stakes poker games for the rich and famous and gets arrested for having dealt with unsavory characters two years after her last poker game. She gets help from Charlie Jaffery (Idris Elba), a lawyer who tries to get her out of her situation.

If that synopsis actually hooked you into the film, then prepare to not have it be so exciting. The way the story plays out on screen was poorly executed. Don’t get me wrong though, it started off pretty interesting, hooking you in with the arrest and showing that she was a skier but anything after that until the very end was lacking. I felt no tension. Nothing there to keep me at the edge of my seat for.

The narration was the most distracting thing for me. In film, it is best to show the audience what is going on than to tell them what is going on. Granted, most of it was a retelling of the story Molly is telling to Charlie but it could have done without a lot of the narration. I think they could have kept the beginning narration to show her as a character and maybe the end but a lot of it could have been scrapped.

In regards of the editing, I had a hard time towards the first 30 mins of the film of which time period I was in as it kept switching between three of them with no differences between each other visually. It jumped from her as a child to her learning how to setup poker games to her and the lawyer. After a while it did calm down with the switch but it was very confusing at the beginning.

The character of Molly Bloom felt very flat. I think it was the way she was chosen to be presented in the film. The did do a good job of showing how she is intelligent and how she could have ran those poker games with those high class patrons. Other than that, there was really nothing else keeping me connected to the character.

I did, however, sort of liked Charlie Jaffery considering he doesn’t have as much screen time as Molly. He was the only one, apart from Molly’s father, to actually figure out what Molly was doing hiding information. He felt like an actual person who genuinely cared for others.

For the cinematography, I really don’t know what to say about it. In some shots, there was no depth in regards to lighting. I noticed it towards the end when two prosecutors are questioning Molly about mob connections. I don’t know if that was on purpose by the director to choose flat lighting on everyone’s faces.

In the end, I didn’t really like the film. It felt too long, it dragged you along, and too much narration was involved. The characters weren’t entirely interesting enough to keep you glued to the screen. All the tension that the could have was gone within the first 30 minutes of the film. I think the film itself could use a re-edit and that would maybe change a few of the issues that I have. In the end, not all films are gonna be great. It is never wrong to watch a bad film from time to time.

If you liked this review, please read my last one before this one: https://vocal.media/geeks/a-film-addict-reviews-kick-ass