Jessica Chastain is great, Aaron Sorkin’s ‘Molly’s Game’ not so much

This is not the review that will tell you not to see a Jessica Chastain movie. Chastain’s take-no-prisoners, full-throttle performances are a pleasure in themselves, and she is at a stage of her career — enjoy it; it never lasts — where she can do no wrong. Somewhere in the next world, Joan Crawford and Bette Davis are actually agreeing on something, and it’s that they really, really like Jessica Chastain.

So thinking of it this way, as a Chastain vehicle, “Molly’s Game” is not bad at all. It allows her to be strong and forthright, to play surface amorality and inner moral fortitude, while doing as many flattering costume changes as Kay Francis on a steamship to Mandalay. But “Molly’s Game” aspires to be more than that.