Molly's Game

Conversation between Molly and her estranged father.

Dad: I get that I'm not welcome in your life right now as your father, though you should know I could give a shit if I'm welcome or not. But I'm not here in my capacity as your father. I'm indifferent to whether your father lives or dies. I'm a very expensive therapist, and I'm here to give you one free session. 
Molly: You think what I need right now is a therapist?
Dad: (laughs) Yeah.
Molly: I have to be back at my lawyer's office soon.
Dad: Do you like your lawyer?
Molly: I wasn't asking for money when I called you, Dad. I just needed my dad. God forbid you part with a nickel. 
Dad: Yeah, Tiny Tim, you grew up on a lake and you've skied all over the world. Were those workhouses tough?
Molly: I gotta go.
Dad: Molly.
Molly: I gotta go.
Dad: Molly, sit the fuck down. ... All right, we're gonna do three years of therapy in three minutes. 
Molly: How?
Dad: I'm gonna go what patients have been begging therapists to do for 100 years. I'm just gonna give you the answers. 
Molly: To what
Dad: Let's start with this. Why does a young woman who, at 22, has a gold-plated resume, why does she run poker games?
Molly: Why did I choose to make a ton of money? That's a head-scratcher. 
Dad: You were gonna be a success at anything you wanted. You know it. If you'd gone to law school, you'd have owned a law firm by now. Why did you do the other thing instead?
Molly: I don't know. Drugs. 
Dad: You didn't start with the drugs until the end. They weren't the problem, they were the medicine. It was so you could control powerful men. Your addiction was having power over powerful men. 
Molly: Is that what you really think?
Dad: No. I know it for sure. You've now completed your first year of therapy. 
Molly: I saw an opportunity. It wasn't about you.
Dad: Nah, it wasn't just about me. 
Molly: It wasn't at all about you.
Dad: It was. Second year, second question. 
Molly: Do you think you were a good husband?
Dad: What do you care?
Molly: I care because you were married to my mother. I care because my father's an asshole. 
Dad: Congratulations. You've completed year two. And for the record, your father raised three kids on a college professor's salary. One of them is a two-time Olympian, a sixth-round draft pick of the Philadelphia Eagles, and a leading philanthropist. The other is a cardiothoracic surgeon at Mass General, and the third managed to build a multimillion-dollar business using not much more than her wits. 
Molly: I'm about to plead guilty in Federal court.
Dad: Well, nobody's perfect. The point is, I did a few things right. Last question. 
Molly: No, I have to go.
Dad: Last question, Mol. I'll answer it, but you have to ask it. You have to ask it.
Molly: Why didn't you like me as much as my brothers?
Dad: There it is. (sighs) I did. It only from time to time appeared that I didn't.
Molly: It only appeared that you didn't?
Dad: Yeah. 
Molly: That is some Schedule 1 bullshit. Why would... "It only appeared" what? Okay, I had an attitude problem. I talked back. I broke some normal adolescent rules. I snuck phone time after curfew. I took your car when I wasn't allowed to... 
Dad: You drove it into a McDonald's.
Molly: Kids get punished for that, but they don't... 
Dad: Did you not see the McDonald's? Did you misunderstand what drive-thru meant?
Molly: You turn into a different person, your voice, your face...
Dad: It was because I knew you knew.
Molly: I didn't hear what you said. 
Dad: I said, I knew you knew.
Molly: You knew I knew what?
Dad: That I was cheating on Mom. I knew you knew. 
Molly: No. I didn't know until I was 20.
Dad: No, you've known since you were five. You saw me in my car, and you really didn't know what you saw. You knew, honey. And I knew you knew. And that's... that's how I reacted to the shame. And you reacted by showing seething contempt for me. Driving my car into McDonald's. 
Molly: And wanting to have power over powerful men?
Dad: No, that was a red-herring just to make you mad. 
Molly: You're such a...
Dad: You tripped over a stick. Okay? Twelve years ago, you tripped over a stick. It was a one-in-a-million thing. You tripped over a stick. That's what you did wrong. There's your session. It's funny how much faster you can go when you're not charging by the hour. I'm your father. Trying to comprehend how much I love you would be like trying to visualize the size of the universe. I didn't know... you'd gotten beaten up until I read it in your book. It was a hell of a way to learn about it. You should know that I'm hiring someone to find the guy who did it, then I'm hiring someone to kill him. 
Molly: Don't even joke about that.
Dad: I'm not.
Molly: It wasn't a purse-snatcher, Dad. It was the mafia...
Dad: I don't care if it's the leader of Hamas. Someone put their hands on you, they're going to suffer. (cries)
Molly: Dad, I'm fine.
Dad: No, they're gonna suffer. 
Molly: Dad... I'm all right.
Dad: No, they're gonna suffer.
Molly: Really, I'm fine.