Adam Sandler

Comeback of the year

Adam Sandler wouldn’t consider his electrifying portrayal of weaselly, motor-mouthed diamond dealer Howard Ratner (the name says it all) in heart-attack thriller Uncut Gems as a comeback. He’s doing very nicely from his Netflix deal, thank you very much, and regards his oft-maligned doofball comedies with great affection: “My intention is just to have a good time, make sure everyone’s laughing,” he says.

But for the many of us who struggled to find anything to laugh about in The Ridiculous Six, The Week Of and Murder Mystery, Sandler’s deep dive into the lizard brain of Howard, who juggles gambling debts, a mistress and enough rat-a-tat dialogue to fill 10 Jimmy Cagney movies, was a godsend.

“I had to concentrate on a whole other part of my head,” says Sandler, who sought out writer/directors the Safdie Brothers after seeing their 2017 thriller Good Time (they’d actually sent Sandler the Uncut Gems script in 2012, but were then nobodies and it never got past his agent). For the Safdies’ part, they dropped their star onto the mean streets of New York, surrounded him with non-professional actors who were genuine tough guys – “They roughed me up… I walked away with bruises” – and gifted him the script of his life while still encouraging improv. Given Sandler had just finished a stellar stand-up tour that resulted in ace Netflix comedy special 100% Fresh, he was, as he puts it, “alert”.

Of course, the biggest surprise is that people still find a performance like the one he gives in Uncut Gems a surprise. This is a guy who’s worked for PTA, James L. Brooks and Noah Baumbach, and you can bet he’ll now go back to his comedies (hello, Hubie Halloween) for five years before he wows everyone anew. Maybe it has to be that way. “It was exhausting,” says Sandler. But boy, did he summon a performance that we’ll never tire of.