Uncut Gems: A two-hour anxiety attack, and a tour de force performance from Adam Sandler
By Karen Gordon
Rating: A minus
Uncut Gems is a heart-pounding sprint of a movie, a two-hour anxiety attack, anchored by a tour de force performance by Adam Sandler.
Sandler plays Howard Ratner, owner of a successful Manhattan jewelry store that caters to big money clients like rappers and sports stars. He’s a force of nature, talking fast and loudly, always in motion. A natural showman, he has the knack of making clients feel at home in his shop.
Adam Sandler excels as a tightly-wound not-so-smooth operator in the anxiety-driven Uncut Gems
But he has big problems that are clawing at him at once. Ratner’s trying to hold off organized crime bag-men who want to collect on his gambling debts. He’s going through a nasty break up with his wife Dinah (played by with poisonous flare by Idina Menzel), who doesn’t bother to conceal her hatred for him. He’s doing his best to maintain ties with his kids in the midst of chaos. And he’s also trying to placate his girlfriend and employee Julia (newcomer Julia Fox in a breakthrough performance), who notes her boyfriend/boss’s increasingly volatile behaviour, but still indulges her party-girl inclinations.
Ratner’s after a big score. He’s acquired a rare uncut black opal from back channels in Ethiopia, a fabled gem he believes is worth more than a million dollars at an upcoming auction – a sum that ostensibly would solve all his problems.
But he makes the mistake of showing the mystic rock to a new client, then-Boston Celtic center Kevin Garnett, playing himself (the movie is set in 2012). Garnett feels a vibe from the gem and asks if he can borrow it to see if it will bring him good luck on the court. Reluctantly Ratner lends him the stone with the agreement that it’s just for one night.
If only Ratner’s life was working out that well.
Uncut Gems is the latest film by Benny and Josh Safdie who co-wrote it with their collaborator Ronald Bronstein. They specialize in modern noir movies. In their previous film, 2017’s Good Time, Robert Pattinson’s character, an ex-con, had to move fast to retrieve his mentally challenged younger brother from jail.
Uncut Gems has a similar trajectory, a race against time, a main character whose life choices and poor decision-making has brought him to a tight corner with life and death implications for himself and his family.
It’s a bit of a formula, a construct, but, still not easy to pull off. Working from their taught, focused script, The Safdies keep the pressure on, moving the story at a break-neck pace, keeping the camera moving, sometimes ‘documentary style’ adding a sense of constant motion and uncertainty. They keep the camera close on Sandler, evoking a sense of Ratner’s claustrophobia, all set to a relentless electronic score that keeps the tension high.
They’re not interested in whether you like their main character or not. He’s loud, obnoxious and, as the movie goes on, increasingly panicked.
Much of the success of the film springs directly from Sandler. His Howard Ratner is a charismatic guy, constantly on the move, manipulating, hustling, romancing, selling, doing what he must, to get what he needs. But he’s also addicted to uncertainty, chaos, and the thrill of the next big score. And that now has brought him to the point of desperation. His own choices have started to strangle him.
It’s a loud, in-your-face and yet intensely vulnerable performance, a portrait of a character who some will find unlikeable. And yet, what makes his performance work so well is that you can see the human being inside the whirlwind.
Ratner has an addictive personality, but he’s not a narcissist in search of attention. Inside of that loud showman is a softie with a big heart. He genuinely likes his clients, loves his kids and his girlfriend. You can see that once he was a guy on top of the world. Now, he’s doing what he needs to make it all okay, but he can’t make it stop.
Uncut Gems is exhilarating filmmaking, and it’s unlikely you’ll see anything this tightly-wound at the theatre anytime soon.
Uncut Gems. Directed by Benny Safdie and Josh Safdie. Written by Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie and Ronald Bronstein. Stars Adam Sandler, Idina Menzel and Julia Fox. Opens Wednesday, December 25 in Toronto, December 26 in Montreal and January 3 in Ottawa..