Uncut Gems

Although I can appreciate on an intellectual level that Adam Sandler is great in this film, and that the Safdie brothers have created a very vivid depiction of time and place with their direction, emotionally this film left me cold … and bored.

Premise:  Gambling addict and New York jeweller Howard Ratner (Adam Sandler) is struggling to balance his commitments to his loan shark (Eric Bogosian), his wife (Idina Menzel), and his mistress (Julia Fox), but hopes that the auction of a rare black opal will solve all of his problems.  But his plans are jeopardised with basketball star Kevin Garnett (playing himself) becomes convinced that the opal is his personal good luck charm, and asks to borrow it for a big game.

Review:

Starting with the positive, Adam Sandler is utterly convincing as New York jeweller Howard Ratner in Uncut Gems.  Reminding everyone that he’s not only a good actor when he has the right material, but that he can be a good dramatic actor, Sandler completely disappears into his character.  I’ve heard in interviews that he spent a lot of time researching the role and finding the character before filming began, and all of that preparation has really paid off.

Equally, the Safdie brothers’ direction does an impressive job of evoking a particular time (2012, during the NBA Playoffs) and a particular place (New York’s Diamond District), and their filming style (including, for example, having multiple characters talking over each other at once) gives the film a real sense of verisimilitude so that it doesn’t even feel like a scripted drama at times.

“…I found Howard Ratner to be a thoroughly unsympathetic & unlikeable character…”

The rest of the supporting cast are really good too, although in fairness, none of them really get a great deal to do, with the noticeable exceptions of Julia Fox (who makes her debut in this film with an interestingly layered performance as Howard’s assistant and mistress) and Kevin Garnett (who plays a fictionalised version of himself, and who does a great job holding his own alongside far more experienced actors).  Other actors, like Lakeith Stanfield, Idina Menzel and Judd Hirsch, make an impression with their limited screen-time, but ultimately don’t have much of a character arc of their own.

Because this film is absolutely Howard Ratner’s story, and the camera stays with Adam Sandler for almost the entire film.  And for me, this is perhaps why I couldn’t emotionally connect with the film, because although I could appreciate the talent that has gone into making Uncut Gems, I just found Howard Ratner to be a thoroughly unsympathetic and unlikeable character to spend two and a quarter hours with.

“…everything Howard does is motivated by his own self-interest…”

We see how Howard is a bad husband, a bad father, a bad boyfriend, a bad boss, a bad son-in-law, and just generally a bad human being (at one point, a character points out that Howard’s whole get-rich scheme is fundamentally based on him ripping off the poor, Ethiopian miners who have, quite literally, risked life and limb to find the black opal).  Everything Howard does is motivated by his own self-interest, and his insatiable gambling addiction.  He lies to everyone, he cheats everyone, he uses everyone around him for his own benefit with absolutely no regard for them – to such an extent that I even found myself feeling sympathy for the loan sharks for having to put up with Howard’s endless stream of BS, lies and excuses.

Howard isn’t a “loveable rogue” and he doesn’t have a “heart of gold” underneath it all – he's just a thoroughly selfish person, who constantly lets everyone else around him down.  Now I know a lot of this stems from his gambling addiction (which is quite clearly all-consuming for him), but there’s still only so much time I could spend in his company before I started hoping that the loan shark would drop him out a window.  His soon-to-be-ex-wife (Idina Menzel) sums it up perfectly when she says “I think you are the most annoying person I have ever met – I hate being with you, I hate looking at you … and if I had my way I would never see you again”.

“…I found the end result at best, dull & predictable, and at worst, annoying & irritating…”

That line pretty much summed up how I felt about spending 135 minutes in the company of Howard Ratner.  So while I tip my hat to Adam Sandler for giving his all to this role, I just did not enjoy Uncut Gems because his character was so unlikeable .  (I also found Daniel Lopatin’s synth-heavy score really jarring and intrusive, but compared to everything else I disliked about this film, the score was a minor quibble).

Uncut Gems has got some great reviews elsewhere, and has won several awards (and gained many more nominations) – so clearly other people have enjoyed it.  As it’s been released on Netflix, you can (if you’re a subscriber) try the film out for yourself at no extra cost and see what you think.  But for me, although I could appreciate the work that had gone into the film, I found the end result at best, dull and predictable, and at worst, annoying and irritating.