Molly's Game is my pick for this week's theme of femme fatale, a character based on what I consider a real-life femme fatale and a movie which I loved.
Molly's Game is a 2017 American biographical crime drama film written and directed by Aaron Sorkin starring the wonderful actress Jessica Chastain as the lead and Idris Elba as her co-star.
This is the true story of Molly Bloom, an Olympic skier who after sustaining an injury had to quit her dreams and started working as a waitress in a night club, where she meets powerful men that introduce her to poker. Molly becomes so well-known in the poker world that she begins to run the world's most exclusive high-stakes poker games which included Hollywood and sports stars, business titans, and finally, the Russian mob.
The ties of her poker games to the Russian mob have her arrested, having to look for the lawyer Charlie Jaffey's help, sharing her story from the very beginning so he can defend her in court.
This is a fantastic movie and I've rewatched it multiple times! Jessica Chastain is amazing as the lead character, who is a very complicated a multilayered woman. I chose this movie for the femme fatale category because this is an extremely intelligent, smart, and quick-witted beautiful woman who uses her sexy charms as well as her cunning side to become rich and build an empire on Poker Games.
Molly isn't written as the perfect strong woman, but we can't help but admire everything that she accomplished and the many millions she was able to make. She also has a vulnerable side which is explored later on in the film, and Chastain is wonderful at delivering those scenes too, as we sympathize with our heroine as every piece of her empire collapses.
This film doesn't give you the time to get bored, the pacing isn't slow and always keeps you entertained with quick exposition, it's done in a stylish way, also having a great dialogue. The narration also seems very natural, which is very hard to accomplish.
Idris Elba works perfectly as the calm lawyer that sympathizes with Molly's story, his character greatly contrasting with hers. Michael Cera as Player X also does a wonderful job! Although the actor has clearly been typecasted as the nerdy genius type.
Molly's Game is so much more than a biographical film, it's also inspiring, portraying the life of a successful woman and how she climbs to the very top with only using her charm and how brilliant she is. This was definitely one of my favorite movies from 2017, I personally being really impressed because I watched it not expecting much, I wasn't even sure what the movie was about.
I strongly recommend you watch it if you haven't, I'm sure you'll have a great time!
