Molly's Game
STX Entertainment | Release Date: December 25, 2017 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
71
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 46 Critic Reviews
Positive:
35
Mixed:
10
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperDec 24, 2017
Few actors on the planet can shift gears as effortlessly as Chastain, who perfectly captures Molly’s chameleon-like ability to adapt to situations and to rationalize her worst behavior. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyDec 22, 2017
Molly’s Game is a cool, crackling, confident film that appeals to your intelligence instead of insulting it. At the movies, it may be the closest we’ll get to a Christmas miracle. Read full review
91
IndieWireDavid EhrlichSep 16, 2017
The subtly profound ways in which this movie distorts the recent past makes it one of the most radically entertaining things its iconoclastic scribe has ever written. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangDec 23, 2017
At 140 minutes, this movie qualifies as something of an endurance test.... But as endurance tests go, Molly's Game is also an incorrigible, unapologetic blast — a dazzling rise-and-fall biopic that races forward, backward and sideways, propelled by long, windy gusts of grade-A Sorkinese. Read full review
90
VarietyPeter DebrugeSep 16, 2017
Molly’s Game delivers one of the screen’s great female parts — a dense, dynamic, compulsively entertaining affair, whose central role makes stunning use of Chastain’s stratospheric talent. Read full review
88
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonJan 4, 2018
This is a “Game” that couldn’t be more fun to watch. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliDec 27, 2017
In true Sorkin style, the movie is all about the nonstop dialogue, which pours out at a mile-a-minute but, as a result of the way the words flow (not to mention the skill with which they are delivered), they function as momentum builders rather than verbal diarrhea. Read full review
83
ConsequenceSarah KurchakSep 12, 2017
Molly’s Game is a successful crime drama, but it’s also a film that acknowledges the presence of both good and bad luck in the pursuit of excellence. Most importantly, it allows failure to exist as a living and breathing entity, rather than a tragic ending or a fate simply suffered by the morally impure. And that is what you might call exceptional. Read full review
80
Total FilmMatt GlasbyDec 29, 2017
Bloom’s an extraordinary character, expertly played, and we gradually move from admiring her chutzpah to genuinely caring what happens to her. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsStephen Whitty Dec 23, 2017
Compared to a really great poker game, sometimes “Molly’s” comes up a little short. It definitely keeps you too long at the table. And there are times — like every Sorkin script — where it won’t stop talking. Really, buddy, shut up and deal...But when the chips are down, its stars come through. And in the end, we all walk away winners. Read full review
80
Time OutTomris LafflyDec 21, 2017
A sharply judged edit stitches together three separate timelines, shaping Molly as a complex and razor-sharp character in a world dominated by entitled mansplainers. Forget Rounders—here’s a poker movie to go all-in on. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthySep 16, 2017
Sorkin both entertains and makes you lean in to absorb every detail of this wild tale, which boasts a stellar cast to help tell it. Read full review
80
The VergeBryan BishopSep 16, 2017
Molly’s Game is the best of Sorkin, with many of his problematic tendencies removed, resulting in a tremendously entertaining film that turns the prolific writer into a filmmaking double-threat in one fell swoop. Read full review
80
VoxAlissa WilkinsonSep 16, 2017
Sorkin is still a better writer than director, but the fun of watching this film comes mostly from witnessing him at the top of his game. Read full review
80
CineVueChristopher MachellSep 16, 2017
With Sorkin's signature whip-crack dialogue driving an astonishingly assured directorial debut, Molly's Game is an exhilarating, superbly crafted crime drama. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinSep 11, 2017
Molly’s Game isn’t the deepest movie you’ll see, but it’s both finely tuned and big-hearted. It’s a rouser. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleJosh KupeckiDec 21, 2017
The main draw here, besides the nature of the high-stakes poker milieu, is Jessica Chastain. Read full review
77
IGNWilliam BibbianiNov 22, 2017
Molly’s Game doesn’t announce Aaron Sorkin as the next great filmmaker, but he’s a good one. It’s a competently filmed production with some fine performances, but it lacks the focus and showpersonship that would be necessary to make it feel like more. Read full review
75
The AtlanticDavid SimsJan 7, 2018
Even if Molly’s Game is a tad too long and a mite too exposition-heavy, its star alone is worth the price of admission. Read full review
75
Philadelphia Daily NewsGary ThompsonJan 2, 2018
Aaron Sorkin’s entertaining new film is a tough, smart look at the way some Hollywood heavyweights treat women. Spoiler: not well. But it’s also more than that – it touches on broader legal and labor issues and systems that disadvantage women everywhere, in different ways. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireDec 27, 2017
Ever the fierce competitor, Molly has found a way to rule in a male-dominated world. If only Molly’s Game had let her win in the end on her own fascinating, complicated terms. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversDec 27, 2017
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. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsDec 27, 2017
The best of Molly’s Game, however, is more on the “Social Network” level, edgy and rhythmic. This is Sorkin’s feature directorial debut, and I’m happy to say it doesn’t look that way. Read full review
75
USA TodayBrian TruittDec 22, 2017
When Sorkin does go off on side episodes, they’re for the greater good. Molly’s dealings with a nihilistic and smarmy A-list movie star (Michael Cera), a gambler (Bill Camp) who loses his cool, and the drunk Irishman (Chris O‘Dowd) responsible for pulling the Russian mafia into her games actually boost the overall narrative rather than cannibalize it. Read full review
75
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiDec 22, 2017
The crime drama is smartly written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, it features a piercing lead performance by Jessica Chastain, and it’s got something for almost everyone: from gambling and glitterati to the mafia and ice skating. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayDec 21, 2017
Swift, stylish, tough-minded and sharp-tongued, this engaging fact-based drama, about a young woman who at one point ran the richest poker game in the world, is worth recommending if only to see its star, Jessica Chastain, at the top of her nerviest, most icily self-controlled game. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzDec 21, 2017
There is too much dead weight to this particular game – and there's an extremely queasy undertone of Sorkin-penned daddy issues that lace Molly's motivations. Read full review
75
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldDec 21, 2017
Molly’s Game could have been a terrific movie if Sorkin could have edited out 20-30 minutes; as it is, it’s a good movie overstuffed. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloDec 15, 2017
The same fundamental strengths and weaknesses — the former usually outweighing the latter, happily — are evident in all of his movies, no matter who’s in charge. A master like Fincher can add some visual zing, but the song remains the same. Read full review
75
The PlaylistKevin JagernauthSep 16, 2017
Sorkin’s swordsman-like pen continually keeps the picture engaging; his knack for one-liners and absurd dialogue detail remains finely attuned. Read full review
75
The Film StageChristopher SchobertSep 16, 2017
When Molly’s Game is good, it’s very, very good. There are dazzling moments throughout, and it’s clear that Sorkin is having a blast. Much of the film is downright intoxicating, just like the world Molly Bloom found herself in. Read full review
70
Village VoiceApril WolfeDec 21, 2017
Chastain seems at times to be both the lead and her own supporting actor in this story, as she oscillates between traditionally feminine and masculine modes of behavior, sometimes inhabiting both at once. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzDec 21, 2017
Most of the complexity in the film comes from its structure, as we go back and forth in time with Bloom. It’s an entertaining journey, especially if you like to listen. Read full review
70
Screen DailyWendy IdeSep 16, 2017
The scenes that Chastain and Elba share are enormously enjoyable. There’s a crackling, almost screwball quality to their rapid-fire banter. You rather wish they had more screen time together. But there’s a lot of backstory to explore and many fools to be parted from their money. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy BurrDec 27, 2017
It’s tempting to think of Molly’s Game in poker terms: Sorkin’s holding a queen, a king, and at least a couple of aces, but the tell is that he talks too much, and in the end you realize he’s bluffing. Read full review
60
The TelegraphTim RobeyJan 4, 2018
And there’s a hidden triumph in the supporting cast from the always-reliable character actor Bill Camp (Black Mass, Midnight Special), whose spectacular, hideously convincing wipe-out as a guy called Harlan Eustice, in the course of a single night, sets much of the plot in motion. Read full review
60
EmpireHelen O'HaraDec 29, 2017
It’s an intriguing look into a secret world and a great performance from Chastain, but Sorkin’s directorial debut never quite makes the leap from great poker movie to great movie. Read full review
60
We Got This CoveredJoseph FalconeSep 16, 2017
Aaron Sorkin’s indelible wit and naturally fervent performances from Jessica Chastain and Idris Elba prevent Molly’s Game from drawing dead. Read full review
58
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerJan 12, 2018
Elba is one of those actors who radiates his own force field even if he’s sitting still, or just tying his shoe. His no-nonsense performance helps to eradicate some of Sorkin’s nonsense. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleJonathan CurielDec 27, 2017
At a certain point, everyone watching Molly’s Game will form the question, “Why should I care about any of this?” It’s a question Sorkin should have anticipated. He has no good answer. Read full review
50
The New York TimesManohla DargisDec 24, 2017
It is hard not to wonder how this movie might have turned out if Mr. Sorkin had decided his protagonist was as much a weasel as the one he wrote for “The Social Network,” another story of an American striver. It’s hard not to wonder, too, how this story might play if its protagonist wasn’t a woman who, as this movie sees it, needed so much male defending. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreDec 22, 2017
Molly’s Game has a mesmerizing quality, and an exhausting talk-your-ear-off air that is almost shockingly uncinematic. Read full review
50
TheWrapInkoo KangDec 19, 2017
It’s too bad that Chastain’s heady, exquisitely subtle performance is dragged down by the laughably vehement male characters that seek to speak for her. You can’t keep a good woman down. But you can constantly talk over her, I guess. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternDec 22, 2017
No one knew Mr. Sorkin was a good director, but he is, and his filmmaking chops come topped with intelligence and curiosity. That makes it all the more remarkable, and I don’t mean good remarkable, when the film takes a last-reel turn into slushy psycho-sappiness, enlisting someone we thought we’d seen the last of to explain what the story was really about. Read full review
40
The GuardianBenjamin LeeSep 16, 2017
Sorkin is spellbound by his subject, fascinated by the many details of her admittedly impressive life, but the magic he clearly feels fails to translate on screen. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineJake ColeSep 10, 2017
There's a blank space at the core of Molly's Game that the protagonist cannot fill, unable as she is to represent anything beyond her esoteric narrative of unorthodox self-actualization. Read full review
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