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Molly's Game Blu-ray delivers great video and audio in this enjoyable Blu-ray release
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.
For more about Molly's Game and the Molly's Game Blu-ray release, see Molly's Game Blu-ray Review published by Martin Liebman on April 4, 2018 where this Blu-ray release scored 3.0 out of 5.
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 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 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 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 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.
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Universal Pictures Home Entertainment has officially announced that it will release on Blu-ray Aaron Sorkin's Molly's Game (2017), starring Jessica Chastain, Idris Elba, Kevin Costner, Michael Cera, and Chris O'Dowd. The release will be available for purchase on ...
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