Molly's Game (2017) tells the true story of a woman named Molly Bloom who went from world-class Olympic level skier to illegal poker game organizer after a devastating injury in a qualifying event for the 2002 Winter Olympics. As her game grows and as more and more celebrities, athletes, businessmen, and members of the Russian mob join her games, Molly starts to get noticed by the FBI, who starts to investigate her. After she is arrested, Molly must work with a lawyer to avoid jail time and start to repair her life.
At release, Molly's Game was very well reviewed and was a modest financial success. Peter Travers of The Rolling Stone, for example, loved the film. He wrote: "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. Still, in his first film with a female protagonist, the writer-director has hit on a timely theme: the tribulations of being a woman in a man's world." Writer/director Aaron Sorkin was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Against a budget of $30 million, the film made back almost $60 million at the box office.
