Every now and again, a masterpiece is produced which tells the true story of extraordinary lives. Aaron Sorkin is no stranger to this format. He has written films such as The Social Network and Steve Jobs, and is also known for his dialogue-filled dramas such as West Wing. His latest work is Molly’s Game, and for this 140 minute long movie Sorkin has made himself both writer and director.

Molly’s Game is an American crime drama film which tells the real life story of Molly Bloom, based off her memoirs, ‘Molly’s Game: From Hollywood’s Elite To Wall Street’s Billionaire Boys Club, My Adventures in the World of Underground Poker’.

The game may have moved on from the world of underground mobsters, to the world of thriving online poker communities, but Molly’s Game nonetheless tells a captivating story of a real person’s life.

Bloom, played in the film by Jessica Chastain, is an Olympic-level skier who is forced into a career change due to injury. She moves from Colorado to California, where she finds herself working for a man who runs underground poker games on the side.

The film cuts to the FBI raiding Molly’s house, and flips between the two timeframes as Molly recounts the story to her lawyer, played by Idris Elba. We also see glimpses of her early life and her fractured relationship with her father.

The audience learns of Molly’s story mostly through monologues and dialogue, as she tells of her times running one of the world’s most exclusive poker games at the Viper Room in Los Angeles. With a $250,000 buy-in, the games are sure to attract the wealthy and powerful, and it isn’t long before the chips are flying around between Hollywood stars, athletes and Russian mobsters.

Molly Bloom soon gains her reputation as the “Poker Princess”, but in reality she is anything but that. She is ruthless, skillful, witty and strong willed, and as the FBI target her empire, we learn that there is more to Bloom than the tabloid stories would have had us believe.

Molly’s Game first premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2017, and is set for release on November 22nd in the US and on December 26th in the UK. Early reception for the film has been mixed. Molly’s Game has high ratings on Rotten Tomato, with 93% and 27 reviews. Though on Metacritic, the film receives a metascore of 74 and is labelled “generally favorable”.  

Peter Debruge from Variety compliments Sorkin’s film, saying, “Molly’s Game delivers one of the screen’s great female parts – a dense, dynamic, compulsively entertaining affair, whose central role makes stunning use of Chastain’s stratospheric talent.” He also stated however, that the film amounts to “a series of mile-a-minute monologues, stacked back-to-back for the better part of 140 minutes.”

Others have also given mixed opinions on the film. In an article by the Guardian, Sorkin is criticized for taking on too much by both writing and directing the film, and even goes so far as to call the fiasco a “long and rambling story”.

We won’t know how Molly’s Game will be received until it is released to the general public later this year. A lot probably depends on viewer preferences. Those who like their films full of information, delivered at fast-pace without a break, will enjoy Sorkin’s adaptation of Molly’s memoirs. Those who need more action and emotion may have to look elsewhere.