I’m not much of an Adam Sandler fan. I think I enjoyed some of his SNL stuff back in the day, but these days Sandler is the very picture of the lazy comedic actor. His movies all look about the same, and he rarely seems to be trying. He can, on occasion, put out a performance that critics rave about, but then he’ll go back to his usual shtick.
But he’s been getting even more raves for his performance in the new Uncut Gems. Heck, the first time I saw a trailer for it, I thought it was a John Turturro movie before recognizing Sandler as the glad-handing gambler looking for a way out of all the problems he was in. So, this was a definite departure if nothing else.
But what is Uncut Gems? It’s basically a few days in the life of Howard Ratner, a character with a last name reminiscent of Dustin Hoffman’s Ratso Rizzo character from Midnight Cowboy. I am fairly certain that’s deliberate. Howard is a guy constantly on the prowl for more. When we meet him, he’s made a deal for an Ethiopian rock with some black opals inside of it. He’s going to sell it at an auction for what he thinks will be a grand amount of money, but he can’t resist showing it to NBA star Kevin Garnett when the man comes into Howard’s shop. Howard won’t sell it, but he will loan it out to Garnett so long as Garnett loans Howard his championship ring as collateral.
The thing is, Howard has a gambling problem and already owes a local loan shark (also his brother-in-law) a lot of money. Oh, and he owes other people too while his wife (Idina “Ilsa” Manzel) is planning a divorce for after Passover. And he has a mistress (newcomer Julia Fox) in his city-based apartment. So, we can see Howard has a history of making bad decisions already, and much of the movie also follows Howard as he makes bad decision after bad decision. And on the rare occasion when he makes a good decision, it also blows up in his face.
Now, one of the things I don’t generally like about Sandler movies is he tends to play obnoxious man-child characters. However, the Safdie brothers who director and co-wrote the movie (with their frequent collaborator Ronald Bronstein) seemed to see that as Sandler’s strength. Howard is incredibly obnoxious. He goes around like a loud, bull-in-a-china-shop, burning bridges as he goes and constantly trying to get past his troubles by promising whoever he is talking to that the money is on its way. Howard just seems incapable of making a good decision.
That’s actually a bit on why I ultimately couldn’t get into the movie. While the plot was set up in a such a way that it was doubtful whether or not any of Howard’s plans could actually work, but Howard is such an unlikable character that it somewhat hurt my appreciation for the film. It’s still a good movie, but I just didn’t like Sandler’s Howard. Granted, I’m possibly not supposed to like Howard, but here we are. I didn’t want Howard to fail, but I wasn’t sure I wanted him to succeed either. Regardless, Sandler is brilliant in the movie, so let’s hope he continues to take chances as an actor going forward.
You know, before he does another slapsticky comedy with Kevin James and Rob Schneider.
Grade: B+
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