The 'Molly's Game' Trailer Bets It All On Jessica Chastain's Incredible Performance
Aaron Sorkin, master of rapid-fire dialogue and idealist characters who like to walk and talk, writer of films like The Social Network and Steve Jobs and the TV series The West Wing, makes his directorial debut with Molly's Game, based on the true story of "poker princess" Molly Bloom. A new fast-paced trailer for Molly's Game has arrived to give you a better look at both Sorkin's feature directorial debut and Jessica Chastain's incredible lead performance. Watch the Molly's Game trailer below.Molly's Game is a very Aaron Sorkin-y film. I don't mean that as a negative! I think Sorkin is one of the best dialogue writers in the biz. What I mean is if you're at all familiar with Sorkin's work, you likely know exactly what you're getting from Molly's Game – lots of verbal acrobatics delivered at the speed of a bullet leaving the barrel of a gun. What makes Molly's Game so special, though, is the lead performance from Jessica Chastain. That performance is on full display in the trailer below.
Molly's Game Trailer
I don't like to speculate about a film's award potential, but I'd be shocked if Chastain doesn't clean-up when award season rolls around. As I said in my TIFF review:
Chastain's movie through and through. At this point in her career, it seems almost futile to keep repeating what an incredible actress Chastain is. What else is new? But once again, Chastain crushes it, storming through this film like a hurricane.
In the film, Chastain plays Molly Bloom, a real-life former olympic skier who made a fortune running (mostly) legal poker games, first in Los Angeles, then in New York. Molly's Game focuses on her downfall, after the government arrests her for some not-so-legal elements of her poker game running life; elements that involve some unsavory individuals, like the Russian mob. Here's the film's official synopsis:
MOLLY'S GAME is based on the true story of Molly Bloom, an Olympic-class skier who ran the world's most exclusive high-stakes poker game for a decade before being arrested in the middle of the night by 17 FBI agents wielding automatic weapons. Her players included Hollywood royalty, sports stars, business titans and finally, unbeknownst to her, the Russian mob. Her only ally was her criminal defense lawyer Charlie Jaffey, who learned that there was much more to Molly than the tabloids led us to believe.
Joining Chastain in the "great performance" department is Idris Elba, who is pretty darn great playing Molly's frustrated lawyer. It's another nice reminder that Elba is a strong actor who too often gets stuck in junk movies (I'm looking at you, Dark Tower).
This is a really exciting trailer. I actually think it's almost too exciting – it makes the film seem more action-packed than it actually is. But it also sells the movie incredibly well. If I hadn't already seen the film, this would be exactly the type of trailer that would put my butt in a seat.
Molly's Game opens November 22, 2017.