Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.0

Molly's Game Blu-ray Movie Review

She's fallen, and she's going to get up.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman April 4, 2018

Molly's Game is one big metaphor. When the title character took a fall at an olympic tryout, her dreams seemed dashed, her hopes dropped, and her life took a completely unexpected turn, upward, it would seem, until the inevitable hard crash brought her back to earth and then some and, she can only hope, eventually back to herself. The film, based on the autobiographical book of the same name, was written for the screen and directed by Aaron Sorkin in his debut behind the camera. The longtime writer/producer's notable works include the stage production of A Few Good Men as well as numerous television ventures such as The West Wing and several distinguished screenplay adaptations including Moneyball, Steve Jobs, and The Social Network. Molly's Game is another insightful, purposeful, and engaging Sorkin film. He's fluid behind the camera, unsurprising for someone who, despite a lack of directorial experience, certainly knows his way around a movie. This is a top-end character study that makes an obvious point but does so with agreeable dramatic and character harmony that binds the story together very well by film's end.

Molly Bloom (Jessica Chastain) is a genius and was a talented skier who overcame scoliosis to potentially qualify for the olympics, but a freak accident left her unable to continue that career path. Rather than move on with her life and schooling, she chose to be “young in warm weather” and postponed her academic career, moved west, and found employment at a club and an office where she worked for Dean (Jeremy Strong), who ran a small time poker game with his friends. She gained the players’ affection and pocketed a healthy amount of cash in off-the-books tips. Eventually and under circumstances beyond her control, she created her own game that drew the attention of high roller celebrities and wealthy businessmen alike. As the game grew in popularity, attracted more and better (and sometimes even worse) players, so too grew her risks, personal and financial, that would lead her on a downward spiral from the top of the easy money life.

The movie’s most electric stretch comes as Molly evolves into a poker queen in the first act, though the film is certainly ever engaging and grows more satisfying on a dramatic, rather than an energy, current as the story develops over time, as her evolution as a person, not a gambling facilitator, comes to light. Sorkin, working as both writer and director, keeps the picture flowing with generous speed even at a hefty runtime, and even as the story evolves from her rise to her fall, as she moves from coast to coast to open a new game, and is intercut by scenes featuring her telling her story to her lawyer, it maintains structural integrity and only increases in character depth. The film sort of resets halfway through, as Molly herself must reset, which invariably leads her down a broken path where riches flow but so too do the life-damaging traps into which she so deeply falls. The film is punctuated by an honest, direct, but touching scene in the third act that ties it together with grace and beauty, structurally and emotionally alike, that doesn’t reinvent the film but shines an entirely new light on it.

If the movie has a fault, it’s that it’s a bit too reliant on narration to forward the story and fill in the blanks. It’s an understandable crutch given the complexity of the story and only so many minutes to tell it, considering both its structural ebbs and flows and its increasingly dense character arc but evolution to a simpler theme. Chastain, otherwise excellent in the role, offers stilted, uninspired, monotone voiceover delivery, almost rushing through it to release as much information as possible in any of many short-burst time allotments. But the acting work is otherwise first-rate, particularly from Chastain who aggressively pushes into the part’s high notes and works through, with precision and depth, the personal falls and follies and rises and retribution. Idris Elba is strong, as always, as her attorney, but Kevin Costner dominates the film in the few scenes in which he is featured as Molly’s father, including a shining stretch in what are, arguably, the movie’s most critical minutes.

Molly's Game Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Molly's Game sees some low light banding and pale blacks to open (and they tighten up nicely thereafter, such as during a nighttime exterior scene in chapter 17), and some low light noise spikes throughout, but the image largely reveals a detailed, crisp, and firm digitally sourced picture from thereon. It can appear a little sharp -- the sequence when the audience is first introduced to Idris Elba's character in chapter four is a notable example -- but firm skin textures, refined clothing lines, and sharp office details are the norm. Close-ups of felt-covered tables, playing cards, and chips are also enjoyably sharp and detailed. Colors present with good neutrality, sufficient vibrance, and positive saturation and nuance, whether some of those same poker-specific objects, clothes, or hair and lips, including some electric pink wigs seen earlier in the film. Skin tones appear accurate. This is, by-and-large, a very good, pleasing, and proficient presentation from Universal.

Molly's Game Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Molly's Game opens with blustery cold winds and the sounds of skis sliding over packed snow, the first of several opportunities for organic, detailed, and immersive ambient effects. Music is likewise well spaced, which is always fluid and enriching, with top-end fidelity, but without much of prominent surround activity, even with the 7.1 configuration at the track's disposal. A few action scenes -- a character is badly beaten at one point later in the movie -- deliver prominent and weighty hits and smacks. The subwoofer engages enough to give modest weight to those aforementioned action bits as well as the film's front-heavy music. Dialogue propels the movie more so than any other component, and its delivery is expectedly fine in all areas of concern.

Molly's Game Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Molly's Game contains one extra. Building an Empire (1080p, 3:03) is a quick discussion of the story and the lead character. A DVD copy of the film and an iTunes digital copy code are included with purchase.

Molly's Game Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Molly's Game tells an engaging story and performances are fairly strong. It's not just the tale of an illegal poker game but a deeper character exploration that hits notes of loyalty, parent-child relationships, and wayward life drifts, all with scene-commanding construction and a hopeful outlook on life, on recovering from the fall, in more ways than one. Universal's Blu-ray is fine, visually and aurally. Sadly only one brief supplement is included. Recommended.