What works in Molly's Game and would could have been better

Didn't realize while watching Molly's Game that the screenplay was by Aaron Sorkin, but of course that made a lot of sense - this film is a vehicle for fast-paced and clever, often too clever, repartee, some of which does work really well, especially in the many scenes involving the lead, Jessica Chastain as Molly Blloom, and Idrus Elba, as her defense attorney. Too often in Sorkin productions the cleverness of the writing overwhelms everything else (Social Network a notable exception, where one could believe the brainiac characters may well speak the way Sorkin writes), but here his quips are pretty much confined to the scenes between those 2 characters, so the brainy humor is supportive rather than obtrusive. The story, based on Blooms book, is about her years running a series of high-stakes private poker games frequented by many famous people in entertainment, business, and, later, the underworld; none is identified by name, which some may quibbler w/, but I don't think this movie is meant to be an expose - but it does give us a good look at how these private games are managed and mismanaged - and how destructive they can be to those in way over their heads. The film seems a bit too long - about 2.5 hours! - given the material (a lot of the final act could have been conveyed in a few closing-credit slides) but the pace is pretty good, the material was unfamiliar, at least to me, and the leads do a good job holding our attention and sympathies.