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I Almost Loved ‘Molly’s Game’
Too much of a good thing can be a bad thing.
I remember first watching Molly’s Game on a flight back home after a long week of working out of state. I thought this would be a fun ride for me to let go of the stress of work, but I didn’t end up enjoying it all that much. Granted, watching on a small screen while sitting in an uncomfortable seat on a plane was not the most optimal setting for viewing a piece of work as mentally rigorous as this one is.
As an Aaron Sorkin fan and a lover of poker, politics, and courtroom dramas, I probably should’ve loved this film. So many elements of the story are things I enjoy so I have been bothered by the fact that I didn’t like it. I couldn’t remember the details of my dislike for this film, I just didn’t enjoy it like I thought I should.
Upon rewatching, I have concluded that the problem with Molly’s Game is that it is too much of a good thing. Aaron Sorkin put himself completely into this story and I think he went overboard. Apparently, too much of Sorkin can, indeed, be a bad thing.
Molly’s Game starts off, like so many other Sorkin pieces do, with a wordy monologue spoken at a breakneck pace to set up the world we find ourselves in. And I was instantly hooked. Molly (Jessica Chastain) is a no-nonsense, overachieving woman who seeks to win at…
