The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
‘Uncut Gems,’ starring Adam Sandler, good enough to totally hate
Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder for ‘Uncut Gems,’ a film that’s purposefully rough around the edges
From time to time, I find myself explaining to someone how, when I’m reviewing movies, I try to make a distinction between how much I liked something and how strong a piece of work I thought it was.
Truthfully, those things tend to align closely much more often than not. If I think something is good, I tend to enjoy it quite a bit.
“Uncut Gems” is an exception.
Hard to define but labeled a crime thriller by its studio, A24, the manic film from brothers Josh and Benny Safdie stars Adam Sandler as a charismatic New York City jeweler who’s always chasing that next big score.
Sandler, known largely for throw-away comedy vehicles, gives a highly memorable performance.
More importantly, the Safdie brothers offer a bit of filmmaking that is downright affecting. “Uncut Gems” has this wild kinetic energy about it that separates it from almost
every other film that achieves a wide theatrical release. It is an impressive achievement.
And I hated it.
This film induces anxiety in the viewer like few other non-horror films. In fact, at some point in the first half of “Uncut Gems,” I wrote this in my notebook: “I can’t do two hours of this.”
Of course, I did survive it two-hour-plus runtime, but I was anxiously awaiting the end to come for “Uncut Gems.”
Maybe because that while it’s unlikely many of us know anyone quite like Sandler’s Howard Ratner, we probably have that friend or family member who seems to make one bad decision after another. While Howard works in a heavily secured jewelry store in New York’s Diamond District, he truly traffics in bad decisions.
They hit like machine gun fire in “Uncut Gems.”
Facing serious gambling debts, he hopes to turn an uncut opal he has acquired from an Ethiopian Jewish mining outfit into a huge profit at an upcoming auction. (Worth noting: The Safdie brothers, who directed the film and cowrote it with Ronald Bronstein, open the movie with the gem being unearthed in Africa and transition us to a colonoscopy Howard is undergoing in the Big Apple. Yep, it’s that kind of movie.)
Howard’s already-complicated life — he’s juggling a mistress, Julia (Julie Fox), who works for him, along with the family he’s created with wife Dinah (Idina Menzel) — is complicated further when NBA star Kevin Garnett (portraying himself) visits his store. (The movie is set at the time of the 2012 NBA playoffs, when Garnett’s Boston Celtics are playing the Philadelphia 76ers. The series moving to Philly allows Kevin to make an early-morning visit to the jewelry store in New York.)
There as a guest of Howard’s associate Demany (Lakeith Stanfield), Kevin is consumed with the opal upon being shown it by Howard. Kevin believes the rock to hold a power he would be able to harness on the court and implores Howard to let him have it for the night. Howard reluctantly agrees, taking as collateral the championship ring Kevin had earned a few years earlier. Which Howard immediately pawns for gambling money.
Seriously, this guy. From there, the story spirals more and more wildly out of control — even if the Safdies are, somehow, in control of it the whole time — right through to its heart-stopping climactic stretch.
The brothers have a handful of features to their credit, the previous being the very well-received 2017 crime thriller “Good Time,” which I thought was only so-so. I can’t deny their skill behind the camera at this point, however. I’m not sure I’ve seen anything exactly like “Uncut Gems,” and that’s really saying something.
Nonetheless, I have to ding them for not pulling me into the story more. As a viewer, you don’t need to like and root for the characters in a movie … but it sure helps if you do. Almost no one in “Uncut Gem” possesses much in the way of redeeming qualities, with Howard being downright loathsome most of the time.
“I think you are the most annoying person I have ever met,” Dinah tells him at one point.
Yes! That’s it exactly!
Menzel, who can be heard in theaters voicing her ubiquitous “Frozen” princess Elsa in smash-hit sequel “Frozen 2,” seems out of place in “Uncut Gems.” On the other hand, its odd cast — along with Garnett, the film features New York sports-talk legend Mike Francesa and musical artist The Weeknd — is part of what passes for its charm.
Garnett, by the way, is a big man with a big presence
on screen. He is rather captivating playing this fictionalized version of himself.
Also worth another mention is seemingly everywhere Stanfield (“Atlanta,” “Sorry to Bother You,” “Knives Out”), who, as usual, is very good. Demany’s interactions with Howard, which primarily entail
keeping him away from Kevin and the opal, are among the few times you may feel something close to sympathy for Howard.
Sandler owns this movie, however, giving a performance that’s up there with his work in “Punch Drunk Love” and “Spanglish.” As with the movie as a whole, you may detest the end result of his work, but you have to appreciate it.
“Uncut Gems” surely will be a diamond in the rough for some cinephiles, but most folks will be better off leaving this oddly shaped rock in the drawer.