Kevin Costner's Performance in This Paramount+ Crime Thriller Is So Good, It Demands a Rewatch

Published Oct 13, 2026, 11:51 PM EDT Mitchell Brown is a Wisconsin-based writer, film fanatic, and graduate of University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee who has written for various publications covering film analysis, reviews (both classic and contemporary), and movie news. He's also a screenwriter, having written multiple spec scripts. When he's not watching movies, writing movies, or writing about the films he's already seen...no, that about covers it. Kevin Costner is a distinguished leading man, but you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who considers him a chameleon when it comes to inhabiting a role (though, if you want to start randomly asking strangers their opinion on Costner's acting, we won't stop you). Costner is an actor where the roles he takes — especially in his '90s heyday — usually work around him, rather than the other way around, and it leads to him carrying the material, rather than elevating it. Having said that, there is one exception, a film where he delivered the most impact with the least amount of screen time: Molly's Game. Released back in 2017, the film cuts between the real-life career of Molly Bloom (Jessica Chastain) as she builds an empire out of an elite and highly exclusive poker game she oversees, and flash-forwards to her ensuing legal problems, which she goes over with her attorney, Charlie Jaffrey (Idris Elba). When dramatically relevant, the movie cuts back to her childhood, when she trained to be an Olympic skier under the tutelage of her cold and overbearing father (Costner). Kevin Costner isn't the Lead (but He Steals the Show) Image via STX Entertainment Molly's Gamesaw the directorial debut ofAaron Sorkin—wonder what he's been up to lately—and put Costner in the rare position of appearing in a movie, but not as the lead. Instead, he clocks in at around 10 minutes of screen time in a movie that's nearly two and a half hours long. But much likeDarth Vader in Rogue One, Christopher Walken inTrue Romance, ora third example that your brain will naturally fill in here from your own favorite briefly-shown characters, the time that he does have is put to excellent use. There was a period in the '90s where Hollywood seemed deadset on making Costner an action star; the problem was that as an actor, he can command authority, just not in a physically imposing or intimidating way (this is on top of the fact that in the late '80s/early '90s, he looked like the stock image of every dad from every commercial ever made). That's why he worked better in everyman roles, playing family men and blue-collar worker-types — because he just looked like some guy. That's why people always reference something like Field of Dreams as one of his standout movies; in it, he's genuinely charming as an earnest, hardworking man who's trying to achieve a dream that he doesn't fully understand. I don't buy that he would take on the mob—outside the legal system—and go face-to-face with Robert De Niro (not even Al Capone, I mean Robert De Niro). But I do buy that he'd be afraid of James Earl Jones kicking his ass with a crowbar and would try to talk his way out of a scuffle. In Molly's Game, given what little screen time Costner has, he makes his presence known as a hard-nosed dad who wants his kids to excel in life and wants what's best for them, sometimes to the extent that he feels it's more important than showing his affection. Every scene early on has some amount of drama or conflict between him and the teenaged Molly. When called out for not allowing his kids to have conflicting opinions (when Molly tries to goad an argument at dinner), he tells her she can challenge his authority when she's in a position to "make your own money so you can live in your own house and eat your own food." At first, it seems like he's going to be locked into the standard archetype of an overly domineering father figure, but all that changes during the bench scene. Costner and Chastain Get... Benched (Not Sorry) Image via STX Entertainment The bench scene is the standout moment of the entire film, and possibly the best piece of acting Costner has ever done. The interaction's famous framing device is that he gives Molly three years of therapy in three minutes, and breaks down why their relationship was always so strained. Starting out, he makes his stance clear: "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." He's objective when explaining what her problems are, but as the scene progresses, he becomes more vulnerable and slowly strips away the walls he's built up, until he ends the scene as her tearful father, showing her the pain he's felt as he learned what she went through, including being attacked by a member of the mob. This leads to his uttering one of the film's most famous lines, which was featured prominently in the trailer: "Trying to comprehend how much I love you would be like trying to visualize the size of the universe." Big surprise, Kevin Costner is very good when it comes to father/son and/or daughter moments. The bench scene is a quintessential example of Aaron Sorkin's skills as a writer, because it involves two characters sitting down and explaining the movie's themes and the arc of the main character, with zero attempt to disguise it. If written by someone else, it might come across as too on-the-nose or forced, but he always manages to make it feel poignant and thematically satisfying. While the film is great overall, Costner's performance and chemistry with Jessica Chastain—wonder what she's been up to lately—gives the movie a surprise extra dose of heart that elevates the film's climax and feeds into the subsequent scene with her attorney, where she maintains her integrity when faced with prison time. Chastain is quoted as saying it's the best scene she's ever acted in, and it very well may be the best performance Kevin Costner has ever given. Molly's Game Release Date January 5, 2018 Runtime 140 minutes Director Aaron Sorkin Writers Aaron Sorkin, Molly Bloom