What Jessica Chastains Movie Changed
Aaron's Sorkin's Molly's Game stars Jessica Chastain as the real-life Molly Bloom, who ran the most exclusive high-stakes poker games in the world.
Molly’s Game explores the world of underground poker, following the true story of Molly Bloom, as she transforms from Olympic-level skier to hostess of the most exclusive poker club in the world, to FBI target. While a lot of the movie takes into account the true story of Molly Bloom, it also leaves out some details, making room for the trademark repartee in Aaron Sorkin's movies and tv shows. Although Molly's Game didn't bag any major awards, it did add to Aaron Sorkin's Oscar nominations. Notably, Molly's Game is also the debut of Aaron Sorkin as a movie director.
Sorkin has certainly made a name for himself in the biopic scene, having written the screenplay for award winning films such as Charlie Wilson’s War, The Social Network, Moneyball, and Steve Jobs. Molly’s Game features a star-studded cast, with Jessica Chastain in the titular role, Idris Elba as lawyer Charlie Jaffey, Kevin Costner as father Larry Bloom, and Michael Cera as the nasty Player X.
After a serious injury ruined her chances of skiing at the Olympics, Molly Bloom’s life changed direction. She moved to Los Angeles in 2001, intending to take a year off before going to law school. Couch-surfing and working as a waitress to make ends meet, it was there that Bloom first got a job working as an assistant in the Viper Room running weekly high-stakes poker games. She eventually moved up from assistant to game-runner, making as much as $4 million a year while servicing Molly's Game's Player X and other high rollers. Following a move to New York, a run-in with the mafia, drug addiction, and a major court case, the FBI eventually shut Bloom down. The film follows this storyline, giving narrative shape to the wild tale. Here is the true story of what happened, including some details Molly’s Game leaves out.
The Club In Molly's Game Is Different In Real Life
Everything portrayed up until Molly moves to LA in Molly’s Game is extremely accurate of the true story. Her father’s overbearing insistence on excellence, her skiing career and accident, and her start as a waitress make appearances both in Bloom’s memoir and in interviews with the ex “Poker Princess”. Like in real life, barring some name changes, Dean Keith (The Big Short's Jeremy Strong) met Molly while she was waitressing and offered her a gig as his assistant at his night club. The movie changes the name of the club, though.
In Molly’s Game, it is called The Cobra Lounge, while the real-life poker games took place at The Viper Room, found on the Sunset Strip. The connection between the names is clear, although the movie’s tweak does remove some of the history from the location. The Viper Room, part-owned by Johnny Depp between 1993 and 2004, was a famous celebrity gathering point; it is where River Phoenix died from a drug overdose in 1993. Where Molly’s Game depicts The Cobra Lounge with a flashy neon sign stereotypical of West Hollywood, The Viper Club’s current exterior is far more downplayed: a simple matte black.
Molly's Game Changes The Name Of The Club Owner
Much of the positive reviews of Molly's Game can be attributed to how Sorkin carefully chose the changes he made to the real story, such as how the only thing the movie changed about the club owner who first launched Molly into the world of underground poker is his name. The movie calls him Dean Keith; Bloom’s memoir calls him Reardon Green. In real life, his name was Darin Feinstein, a co-owner of The Viper Room who brought Molly on as an executive assistant. The more insane details in the movie about Molly’s experiences working with Keith are relatively true to life. The scene in which he yells at Molly for buying “poor people bagels” is something that actually happened, according to her memoir.
Who Is Molly’s Game's Player X?
In the 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, Bloom is careful about who she names, and who remains anonymous. Actors like Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Affleck, and Macaulay Culkin became known participants in the underground poker scene after a court case turned public; the bank sued Molly for the money one of her players, Ponzi scheme runner Bradley Ruderman, had lost in the game. In her book, Bloom only refers by name to the people who the media had already outed, protecting the identity of her players who remained anonymous. Taking that one step further, the only real name used in the movie is Molly’s own.
Player X in Molly’s Game is quite clearly meant to represent Tobey Maguire, who Molly names in her book. The movie even nods at this association by stating Player X had once portrayed a superhero; Maguire famously played Spiderman in the mid-2000s trilogy. According to Molly’s book, Maguire was a terrible tipper, amazing player, and awful loser. In the movie, Player X goes on to take control of Molly’s weekly game, whereas in real life, it was another player. However, like in the movie, Maguire really did call Molly to gleefully inform her she had lost the game.
Molly’s Lawyer
Molly's Game's Charlie Jaffey, played by Idris Elba, is an entirely fictional person. While Molly did hire lawyers, Jaffey is an agglomeration, Sorkin’s way of integrating his point of view into the movie. In fact, Sorkin didn’t even interview Bloom’s real-life lawyer, Jim Walden, to allow himself one wholly fictional element. Interestingly, the fictional law firm Jaffey works for, Gage Whitney, has made several appearances in Sorkin’s work, including in The West Wing and Studio 60. But overall, the Molly’s Game true story remains intact, despite this fictional person being included.
Molly's Game Ending & Timeline
The Molly’s Game ending brings her and her father together, where he finally acts the part of supportive parent before her trial. This scene doesn’t make it into Bloom’s memoir, although that is because she wrote it before her actual sentencing. Molly’s Game takes its inspiration from both the memoir and close work between Sorkin and Bloom herself, so Bloom was there to fill in the details between 2014, when the book was published, and 2017, when the movie hit theaters. Another minor timeline difference comes down to her book’s role in the movie, another fictional insertion from Molly's Game director Aaron Sorkin. When she meets with Jaffey, he's already read her memoir. However, because the book was published between Molly’s arrest and sentencing, it is unlikely Jaffey (or his equivalent) would have had time to do this in real life.
Overall, the changes between real life and Molly’s Game were minor. Bloom herself was the one to approach Sorkin, rather than the other way around. Molly’s Game is a testament to the benefit of close relationships between the screenwriter, source material, and subject. In an interview with Vice about the film, Bloom said:
“[Sorkin] didn’t deviate from the truth. A lot of films in this biopic category play with a lot of creative licenses, and yes, there was some of that in terms of how he dealt with certain composite characters, but the rest was all true.”
Are All Aaron Sorkin Scripts Based On True Stories?
Apart from the way almost all of Aaron Sorkin's movies and TV shows are either directly based on true stories or loosely adapted from the experiences of real people, Sorkin is also known for his trademark use of perfectly-written quickfire dialogue, as popularized by The West Wing's "walk-and-talk" scenes. In an episode of the hit reality-based comedy 30 Rock, in which Sorkin also has a cameo, this style has been lovingly referred to by Tina Fey's Liz Lemon as "Sorkin-esque repartee." Sorkin's style of giving characters extended monologues and extremely cutting lines has been criticized as over-the-top and unrealistic, which are sometimes fair descriptions of Sorkin's work. However, as seen in series and movies like The Newsroom, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Steve Jobs, Moneyball, Molly's Game, and A Few Good Men - all based on real events - Sorkin's unique dialogue only serves to further enhance and deepen the way audiences appreciate and understand true stories. Though Sorkin has his fair share of unremarkable releases, like the underwhelming Being the Ricardos, much of his work is celebrated exactly for the liberal use of "Sorkin-esque repartee," a style that continues to influence fully fictional and reality-based entertainment alike.
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