She made us sad in space ("Interstellar", "The Martian"), she made us swoon in the South ("The Help", "The Tree of Life") and she made us cheer as she took on bad guys both real ("Zero Dark Thirty") and supernatural ("It Chapter Two").
Since making her big-screen debut as the title character in the 2008 drama "Jolene," Academy Award winner Jessica Chastain has had quite a varied career these past two decades, playing a terrorist-hunting CIA analyst, a heavily mascaraed televangelist and dozens of complicated women in between.
But through her illustrious career, it's her brazen performance in the 2017 Aaron Sorkin film "Molly's Game" that always sticks out most to me. The gripping gambling drama — which sees Chastain play the real-life leader of a high-stakes, underground poker ring — is currently available to stream on Netflix, but the Oscar-nominated title will soon be leaving the platform at the end of the month.
Here's why you should check out "Molly's Game," and Chastain's commanding performance therein, before it leaves Netflix on Monday, March 31.
What is 'Molly's Game' about?
Chastain's character in "Molly's Game" would seem too absurd to be true, except that she is, in fact, a real person.
The drama is based on the 2014 memoir of the same name by Molly Bloom, a onetime Olympic-level mogul skier whose gold-medal dreams end early due to a sports injury. When she moves to Los Angeles and takes on a bottle-service gig at a nightclub, she meets Dean Keith (Jeremy Strong), a real estate developer who pulls Molly into the world of underground poker.
Soon, Molly is tasked with helping to run Dean's illegal games before becoming so savvy and successful that she breaks off on her own gambling empire in New York City, populated with movie stars (Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are just a few of the known players in Bloom's IRL games), moneyed bankers and, most concerningly, members of the mafia.
When a raid is conducted on one of her players, Molly's status as the "Poker Princess" is seriously compromised, leading to a full FBI investigation into Bloom's gambling empire, with Idris Elba acting as her criminal defense lawyer Charlie Jaffey.
The starry ensemble also includes Kevin Costner as Molly's father, as well as Michael Cera, Brian d'Arcy James, Chris O'Dowd and Bill Camp as players in Molly's ring.
Why is 'Molly's Game' Jessica Chastain's best performance?
Though Chastain has had many acclaimed roles over the years, from her Oscar-winning turn as Tammy Faye Bakker in Michael Showalter's "The Eyes of Tammy Faye" to her Golden Globe-winning work leading Katheryn Bigelow's "Zero Dark Thirty", to me, "Molly's Game" is the film that took the performer from talented actress to full-fledged movie star.
With style, swagger and sex appeal in spades, Chastain taps into Molly's fierce ambitious and steely resolve as the character makes her way through the male-dominated and ever-dangerous world of underground poker, while always letting Bloom's vulnerability peep through the cracks.
And the star manages all of that high-level intensity while confidently navigating writer-director Aaron Sorkin's characteristically wordy script, full of gambling jargon and rapid-fire dialogue.
Peter Debruge wrote in Variety that "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." And we couldn't agree more.
Why should you watch 'Molly's Game' on Netflix?
Beyond Chastain's staggering performance — which earned the actress her fifth Golden Globe nomination — "Molly's Game" is an exceedingly entertaining watch, an energetic and engaging thriller that swiftly jumps from the splashy flashbacks of Molly's poker-ring heyday to the present-day legal ramifications of all of that card-game success.
The bio-drama is the directorial debut of Aaron Sorkin, already a Hollywood legend for his sharp, urgent screenwriting in films like "A Few Good Men," "Moneyball" and "The Social Network", as well as television series including "Sports Night", "The West Wing" and "The Newsroom." That signature vigor can be felt all through "Molly's Game," which earned Sorkin screenplay nominations at the Academy Awards, Golden Globes, BAFTAs and the Writers Guild of America Awards.
"Powered by an intriguing story and a pair of outstanding performances from Jessica Chastain and Idris Elba, 'Molly's Game' marks a solid debut for writer-director Aaron Sorkin," reads the critical consensus on Rotten Tomatoes, where the film boasts a solid 82% rating.
If you're looking for a smart and stylish thriller pulsing with a powerhouse performance by one of the best actresses of her generation, "Molly's Game" starring Jessica Chastain should be added to your watchlist ASAP.
Watch "Molly's Game" on Netflix now
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