The Molly's Game (2017 Film) Community Note includes chapter-by-chapter summary and analysis, character list, theme list, historical context, author biography and quizzes written by community members like you. This story has been shared 111,726 times. Bloom made her money on the tips she got from players, which, as the games buy-ins increased, grew larger and larger. After writing the book, she went around Hollywood trying to find a way to get a meeting with Aaron Sorkin. Molly's Game is a 2017 American biographical crime drama film written and directed by Aaron Sorkin (in his directorial debut), based on the 2014 memoir of the same name by Molly Bloom. The film follows this storyline, giving narrative shape to the wild tale. "[37], Writing for Rolling Stone, Peter Travers gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, saying, "Molly's Game bristles with fun zingers, electric energy and Sorkin's brand of verbal fireworks all of which help enormously when the movie falters in fleshing out its characters. Mal, Jo, and Ben get together to talk about where the Mandalorian people are, what adventure awaits Din and Grogu, and much more. In 2019, Molly Bloom married neuroscientist Devin Effinger. By choosing I Accept, you consent to our use of cookies and other tracking technologies. Curtis said that Ruderman was so inept and so rich that he was considered a godsend. Lalibert was also valued. Curtiss wife moved with their kids to the East Coast. A big part of that was knowing that her mother had put her house up to help her pay her bail and legal fees. She moved to Los Angeles in 2001, intending to take a year off before going to law school. In Mollys Game, it is called The Cobra Lounge, while the real-life poker games took place at The Viper Room, found on the Sunset Strip. She's also working in social media to that end as well. To add insult to injury, Tobey then victoriously showed his bluff. MOLLY'S GAME is a true crime drama starring Jessica Chastain and Idris Elba about Molly Bloom. BARK., Tobey, I said. After reaching out to many wealthy New Yorkers, Molly finds enough players for several weekly games. There's poker, the Russian mafia, the Italian mafia, celebrities, and sports. I pulled him aside to show him the board. Reading the book and watching the movie, its pretty easy to determine that Player X is actually the OG Spider-Man, Tobey Maguire. Broken, beaten and abandoned, Curtis received a lifeline of $15,000 from Moonves and found a ride to Illinois, where he went to live with his mother. And an unpaid debt at a Las Vegas casino landed him in the LA County jail for a month. [23] Production concluded on February 9, 2017. Effinger previously worked as a Research Assistant at the University of Colorado Denver. Bloom read in the newspaper that the FBI had arrested close to 125 individuals in a large-scale mob roundup. There were A-list actors, the most famous people we see on television, politicians, and they're all seated around this table playing this game that I didn't know what it was, but it seemed to be super compelling to them." -Ellen. [21], Molly Bloom herself discussed Chastain's portrayal of her character with ET Canada stating, "We spent a little time together. 1 For 3rd Weekend With $19M To $20M; Older Guy Pics '12 Strong' & 'Den Of Thieves' In Mid-Teens", "TIFF Review: Jessica Chastain Absolutely Owns Aaron Sorkin's 'Molly's Game', "AARP's Movies for Grownups Awards: 'The Post' Leads Nominees", "Complete List of Winners at the 2018 Movies for Grownups Awards", "Oscars: 'Shape of Water' Leads With 13 Noms", "BAFTA Awards: 'Shape of Water,' 'Three Billboards,' 'Darkest Hour' Lead Pack of Nominations", "2018 Critics' Choice Awards: 'The Shape of Water' Leads With 14 Nominations", "DFF40: 40th Denver Film Festival Announces Award Winners", "Detroit Film Critics Society announce 2017 film nominations", "Mill Valley Film Festival Names Mudbound and Molly's Game among its Audience Favorites", "Jessica Chastain Honored by Palm Springs Film Festival for 'Molly's Game', "PGA Awards Film & TV Nominations Unveiled", "2017 SAN FRANCISCO FILM CRITICS CIRCLE AWARDS", "AARON SORKIN TO RECEIVE ZFF CAREER ACHIEVEMENT AWARD / MOLLY'S GAME AS GALA PREMIERE", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Molly%27s_Game&oldid=1133482464, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Audience Favorite U.S. Cinema Gold Award, This page was last edited on 14 January 2023, at 01:04. He told me, Listen, I was never going to keep all those wins anyway, Curtis told the Observer. Her dealer convinces her to begin taking a percentage of large pots, recouping her potential losses but making her game an illegal gambling operation. Notably,Molly's Game is also the debut of Aaron Sorkin as a movie director. Its telling that in her book, Bloom is careful not to take shots at other celebritiesbut she lets Maguires actions speak for themselves, and its all quite horrifying. [28] In its first full weekend, the film grossed $2.3 million, finishing 13th at the box office. In researching the Molly's Game true story, we learned that initially the buy-in started at $10,000. An imaginative young squirrel leads a musical revolution to save his parents from a tyrannical leader. Walker's Life. No thanks, I said, as casually as if he had asked me if I wanted a Tic Tac. How it plays out in the movie: Sorkins film introduces Harlan Eustice (played by Bill Camp), one of the few players at the game with a finite amount of income. Affleck is a notorious gamblerthe guy was allegedly kicked out of the Hard Rock Cafe in Las Vegas in 2014 for counting cards at a blackjack table. And Im gonna make sooo much fking money this year at poker!. In 2014, Molly Bloom wrote a memoir about her life and career titled, Molly's Game, which came to be the blueprint for Aaron Sorkin's screenplay when working on the film. She stayed silent on the others, protecting their identities. His protagonist, Molly Bloom, is as driven as the subjects in The Social Network or Steve Jobs. Ski Team," Bloom said during an interview on Ellen. To learn more about her injury and time as a professional skier, read her book, Molly's Game: The True Story of the 26-Year-Old Woman Behind the Most Exclusive, High-Stakes Underground Poker Game in the World. I laughed again, stalling, hoping he would play the joke out by himself and leave. [11][12] On January 7, 2016, it was announced that Sorkin would make his directorial debut on the film, for Sony Pictures Entertainment, while Amy Pascal also produced. After Molly berates him for his unethicality, Player X decides to change venue for his games, and the others join him, leaving Molly. In the new movie, adapted from Bloom's book of the same name, Player X is a . He bought a dream house for his mother, a musical-instrument store for his dad and a dojo for his old karate teacher. He, his wife and their two daughters lived in a $3 million LA home. A best friend of Maguire, Leo came to play poker when Mollys games were just starting out. He yanked the chip back at the last second. . He roughed her up and threatened her family. Maguires relationship with Bloom grew increasingly toxicat one point in the book, she admits she got nervous if the actor was a dealt a few bad hands because hed take out his frustration on her (and the generous tips she was making). In fact, Sorkin didnt even interview Blooms real-life lawyer, Jim Walden, to allow himself one wholly fictional element. -People, "The very worst time I got screwed ended up costing me $250,000, and that really hurt," says Molly. Wanna fuck?. That is true, but Maguire, as portrayed in the book and on screen by Cera, is more than that: Hes a sinister figure who takes pleasure in, as he puts it in the film, destroying [the] lives of his fellow players, and eventually Bloom herself. But by 2008, Curtis was enduring a trifecta of problems: The value of his $3 million home had dipped by two-thirds, a $4 million TV-distribution deal went south and he had lost $100,000 in Las Vegas. He also relied heavily on her memoir of the same name (pictured below). She pushes herself to learn everything she can about poker so she can bring Dean's . [35] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale. At the sentencing, her lawyer, Jim Walden, conveyed to the court that Bloom was in severe debt in part due to giving up $125,000 in poker profits as part of her plea. Is he an amalgam of the poker players worst tendencies, wrapped up into one, smarmy character? Related:Jessica Chastain & Idris Elba Intrigued By IT Sequel Fan-Casting. Yes. The Molly's Game (2017 Film) Community Note includes chapter-by-chapter summary and analysis, character list, theme list, historical context, author biography and quizzes written by community members like you. In Mollys Game, Sorkin narrows the focus of the book while letting its less impactful anecdotes fall to the wayside. Next: Self-Made True Story: What Netflix Changes About Madam C.J. Rick Salomon showed up next. Screenwriter/director Aaron Sorkin consulted Molly throughout the screenwriting process. Molly's Game (2017) Full Cast & Crew See agents for this cast & crew on IMDbPro Directed by Aaron Sorkin . But Tobey said, Dont worry. . Desperate to turn things around, he lost weight. Please enter a valid email and try again. Her mother's sacrifice helped inspire her to write the book. I was embarrassed, but I was also angry. Description 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. The club had been partly owned by Johnny Depp from its opening in 1993 until 2004. J.C. MacKenzie. In the book Molly's Game, it's never a secret that this nefarious gambler is none other than Spider-Man actor Tobey Maguire. He hires her as his assistant. a man whom she gives the pseudonym Dean Keith. That its all based on Blooms real-life experiences makes this one of the most fascinating true stories in years, and a revealing window into a high-stakes poker world in which a single hand could be worth more than most people make in their lifetime. By the end of the book, its revealed that Maguire orchestrated Blooms ousting from the games. I moved into her tiny house and a doctor [said] that my heart was functioning at 25 percent. . "[22], Principal photography began on November 9, 2016, in Toronto. Maguire agreed to loan him $600,000. An avid reader and fan of writing, she leverages her love of literature to dissect movies in her favorite genres, including horror, rom-coms, and superhero movies. When writing the screenplay, Aaron Sorkin did not interview Bloom's real-life lawyer, Jim Walden (pictured below, right). There were Wall Street titans. Sorkin has certainly made a name for himself in the biopic scene, having written the screenplay for award winning films such as Charlie Wilsons War, The Social Network, Moneyball, and Steve Jobs. When it stays close to the poker table, Jessica Chastains drama, Mollys Game, is riveting but film loses focus in its last half when the games end. I greeted Ben at the door. But I think he realized, like I had, that staying in Tobeys good graces was essential to staying in the game. [3] It ended up debuting to $6.9 million, finishing 7th at the box office. A young woman, Molly ran high-stakes underground poker games that attracted high-profile Hollywood stars and wealthy criminals and eventually got her into trouble with the law. What's the most that Molly Bloom saw someone lose in a single night? As based on the book by Molly Bloom, Molly's Game shows what happens to Molly (played by Jessica Chastain), . She has experience in editorial working as the deputy editor for Specialty Food, an online and print magazine, curating its news section and social media. Curtis estimates he won around $15 million during the games four years. The Hollywood Reporter also stated: "Sorkin keeps things rolling relentlessly and gets fine results from the actors down the line []. [33], On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 82% based on 309 reviews, with an average rating of 7.10/10. As Chastains Bloom points out, this is usury. ""The feds first found out about it because a guy [hedge fund manager Bradley Ruderman] in my LA game was running a Ponzi scheme. This is pretty much exactly how it unfolds in the movie. But, Curtis writes, neither the movie nor Blooms own memoir tells the true story of the LA game. Tobey said that he and I would have to stake Leo, recalled Curtis, meaning they would put up cash for DiCaprio to play, covering his losses but also getting a share of his winnings. In her book, Bloom only mentions the celebrities who had already been outed in the media prior to the book being published. In real life, his name was Darin Feinstein, a co-owner of The Viper Room who brought Molly on as an executive assistant. That's how they found out about this game. For each section, well include excerpts from Blooms book. The money helped inspire her to fully embrace the world of underground poker. (Spend it on a new dress, Dean suggests.) When she meets with Jaffey, he's already read her memoir. But if you dont see it, just remember: Tobey Maguire in real life is much more like Bad Peter Parker in Spider-Man 3 than Peter Parker in the original movie. Molly Bloom ran the most exclusive high-stakes poker game for a decade before the FBI arrested her. Though the dialogue in Sorkins film is a bit preachyits Aaron SorkinMollys Game is the perfect vehicle for his idiosyncrasies: Sorkin and poker are a match made in heaven. "I was on the U.S. "I was third in North America, and I crashed pretty horrifically on my Olympic qualifying run." Chris O'Dowd. There was a tiny nagging voice in the back of my head that was telling me that Tobey being unhappy spelled trouble for me, but I tried to stay focused. Tobey Maguire wanted to take down Hollywood. That's how the celebrities got outed. Ill try to talk to him for you, he said awkwardly. The judge, deciding that she had committed no serious crimes, sentences her to 200 hours community service, one year probation, and a $200,000 fine. Selena Gomez and Hailey Biebers Drama, Jake Pauls Boxing Match, and George of the Jungle, The Mandalorian Season 3 Episode 1 Deep Dive, The Biggest Questions About the Seasons Stretch Run, KDs Suns Debut, Load Management, and Five-Year Anniversary of the Rockets-Clippers Tunnel Debacle. The connection between the names is clear, although the movies tweak does remove some of the history from the location. 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.