Aaron Sorkin tries two new tricks with Molly's Game, he's got a female lead, and he's directing the damn thing himself. But for a guy with such a recognizable authorial voice, being reined in by the sharp dramatic instincts of lets say Rob Reiner or all people never actually did a disservice to his vision, and no matter how distinct people in his films may be they're always part of that same morass of collective identity of Sorkin-ness. I'm actually not down on the guy, exactly, but its my belief that his best work depends on somebody who can stop him before he tarnishes his own work. He actually shows a lot of promise as a director, and as a guy who hates poker (or at least poker worship, televised poker is always the worst thing on TV), there's some scenes I found riveting in this film. The cast is uniformly great, but its scattershot approach to its own character's biography means that some fascinating alleyways the film only glimpses at remain underdeveloped(its a 2 hour 20 minute movie that feels rushed). But very often, this sort episodic, 'anthology film' approach can also be pretty great, and for a life as varied as the subject here entirely appropriate. And I'm sure there's a bunch of actors who could have been just fine for the lead, but if this movie works at all its because Jessica Chastain somehow carries the weight of making an indomitable, brittle, driven, conniving yet principled person seem real, or at least real-ish.
So overall its good, but for some stretches its great, some its lousy. It all balences out eventually, but its the unlikely film that made me wish the suits had a little more sway in making it.
