The film begins with background on Molly Bloom's life. She was on the verge of becoming an Olympic skiier when her goal was derailed by a freak accident during her mogul run to qualify for the Olympics. The injury ended her career and set her on a trajectory through this story. She survived, and determined to remove herself from her father's grasp she moves to Los Angeles to take a year off. There she gets involved with fast money as a bottle service waitress and eventually ends up working for a real estate developer who hosts off the books poker games for celebrities.
What we see is a life so tightly lived under the influence of her father that Molly cannot wait to break free. Day in and day out of striving by the rules, and a year in Los Angeles feels a lot like freedom. And add to the what seems to be easy money, and it's a recipe that is alluring and leads Molly to create her own game after the same system that recruited her chucks her out.
What's striking about this story is how attractive rubbing shoulders with celebrities, athletes and billionaires can be. It's more than that, it's seductive and the horror of it is how they take advantage of people. Player X plays people as though they are a hand he's betting on. He seeks to ruin lives for his own amusement. The irony in all of this is that Player X ruins Molly's game when he leaves, but she still won't turn on the player who abandoned her and played her over and over.
This poker life is one that seems to spawn immorality, violence and greed. But in the end Molly won't turn on these people. It's possibly a combination of fear and an ethical code she lives by. Still, in a world so set on passing the buck, Molly stands out as one who shoulders the consequences of her life fully without any help from others. Because in the end the stars who shine so bright during the games never turn their light to her. And through all of this, her father and her reconcile. We learn what pushing someone to be something more is different than manipulating someone for personal gain.
