Movie · 2017 · Drama, Crime · 2h 21m · R · English
Curator score: 5.6/10 (462.3K ratings)
Deal with her.
Overview
Molly Bloom, a young skier and former Olympic hopeful becomes a successful entrepreneur (and a target of an FBI investigation) when she establishes a high-stakes, international poker game.
Ratings
Curator score: 5.6/10
IMDb: 7.4/10
Letterboxd: 3.58/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 82%
Metacritic: 71
TMDB: 7.1/10
Director
Aaron Sorkin
Production
The Mark Gordon Company, Pascal Pictures
Cast
Jessica Chastain, Idris Elba, Kevin Costner, Michael Cera, Jeremy Strong, Chris O'Dowd, J.C. MacKenzie, Brian d'Arcy James, Bill Camp, Graham Greene, Justin Kirk, Angela Gots, Natalie Krill, Stephanie Herfield, Madison McKinley, Joe Keery, Michael Kostroff, Claire Rankin, Victor Serfaty, Whitney Peak
Where to watch
Amazon Prime Video, fuboTV, Paramount Plus Premium, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Curator Review
Verdict
A slick, fast-talking crime drama with a strong central performance and enough wit, momentum, and legal-cat-and-mouse tension to make it easy to recommend, even if the direction is more functional than inspired. It plays best as a character study of a woman trying to control a world built by men, with Sorkin’s dialogue doing much of the heavy lifting.
Best for
Viewers who like sharp, dialogue-driven dramas
Fans of high-stakes true-crime stories
Audiences who enjoy charismatic, forceful lead performances
People who want a legal thriller with style and momentum
Skip if
You need deep psychological realism over verbal fireworks
You dislike Sorkin-style rapid-fire dialogue
You want poker scenes to be fully accessible without any familiarity with the game
You prefer visually expressive crime filmmaking over talk-heavy storytelling
Overview
Molly’s Game is the kind of movie that knows exactly what it wants to be: a brisk, polished, very talky rise-and-fall story built around a magnetic protagonist. Jessica Chastain gives it its engine, turning Molly Bloom into a mix of operator, survivor, and self-mythologizer. The movie’s pleasures come less from poker mechanics than from watching her navigate power, money, and humiliation with relentless control.
Worth noting
Aaron Sorkin’s first outing as a director is unsurprisingly all about tempo, argument, and verbal sparring. That makes the film feel propulsive even when it’s leaning on familiar rhythms, though it can also feel over-scripted and a little airless. Idris Elba adds steadiness, Kevin Costner gives the family material some weight, and the supporting rogues’ gallery keeps the world lively.
Bottom line
It’s not the most nuanced crime film, and it occasionally mistakes momentum for depth, but it’s consistently watchable. If you’re in the mood for a glossy, adult thriller with a commanding lead and plenty of quotable exchanges, it delivers more often than it misses.
Top Letterboxd reviews
#1 gizmo fan (4★) · 2053 likes
Sorry! I legally cannot hate any movie where Jessica Chastain and her incredible boobs are in my face, even if this is a messy piece of garbage! I’m signing off! 😘
Ellie ✨ (3.5★) · 1488 likes
i'm big enough to admit that i'm a lesbian who spent most of this film staring at jessica chastain's boobs and knowing nothing about poker
Q (5★) · 1409 likes
this is literally 2 hours and 20 minutes of jessica chastain making men look like fools and that...that is poetic cinema
Evan (4.5★) · 1332 likes
Google's definition of Heaven: a place regarded in various religions as the abode of God (or the gods) and the angels, and of the good after death, often traditionally depicted as being above the sky.
My definition of Heaven: sitting in a theater listening to Jessica Chastain speak Sorkin dialogue for 140 minutes.
2013 · Crime, Drama, Comedy · 3h · R · Curator 7.9/10 (5.7M ratings) · Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, Paramount Plus Premium, Paramount Plus Essential, AMC+, Philo, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
For the excess, swagger, and fascination with charismatic operators inside a morally rotten ecosystem.