Newport This Week

There’s Nothing Fake About ‘Uncut Gems’

FILM REVIEW


Adam Sandler has a career-best role as jeweler and compulsive gambler Howard Ratner in “Uncut Gems,” opening Dec. 26 at the JPT.

Adam Sandler has a career-best role as jeweler and compulsive gambler Howard Ratner in “Uncut Gems,” opening Dec. 26 at the JPT.

If you know Adam Sandler only from his goofy but hugely successful comedies such as “Happy Gilmore,” “The Waterboy,” “Grown Ups” and many more, “Uncut Gems,” which opens Dec. 26 at the Jane Pickens Theater will be a revelation.

The actor has flexed his dramatic muscles before, way back in “Punch-Drunk Love” and, more recently, in the poignant family drama “The Meyerowitz Stories,” written and directed by Noah Baumbach of this year’s acclaimed “Marriage Story.” But those films offered a wry, reflective Sandler. “Uncut Gems” is a tour de force: a frenetic portrait of Howard Ratner, a New York City jeweler and compulsive gambler who relentlessly chases a big score and drags his loved ones through his out-of-control life.

Sandler, who just took best actor honors from the Boston Society of Film Critics (of which I’m a member), has teamed with directors and brothers Benny and Josh Safdie. The Safdies got a transformative performance from Robert Pattinson in “Good Time” (2017) about a bank robber who embarks on a mad, nightlong descent into New York’s criminal underbelly. But even that thriller pales next to the anxiety-inducing “Uncut Gems.” The electric score by Daniel Lopatin, who also composed the score for “Good Time” as Oneohtrix Point Never, contributes to the nail-biting and heart-pounding that’s a likely response to the movie.

Loren King is an arts and entertainment writer whose work appears regularly in The Boston Globe and other publications.

Loren King is an arts and entertainment writer whose work appears regularly in The Boston Globe and other publications.

“Uncut Gems” opens with the unearthing from a mine in Ethiopia of a vibrant opal embedded in ancient rock. The Safdies take the viewer through the looking glass of swirling transparent color and into the story which begins, literally, inside Howard Ratner’s bowels as he undergoes a colonoscopy. Ratner may want to escape the fate of his father, but he defies death again and again over the course of the film, eluding thugs and loan sharks eager to make him pay for his many gambling debts.

Ratner runs a small jewelry store nestled in New York’s Diamond District. He’s also a fervent basketball fan with memorabilia strewn around his tiny office and inside the spacious city apartment where he’s lived since leaving his wife Dinah (Idina Menzel) and kids on Long Island.

His pal (LaKeith Stanfield) brings celebrity customers into the store. One afternoon, it’s none other than Boston Celtics star Kevin Garnett (the film is set in 2012 when “KG” was still with the team), who delivers a terrific performance as himself. Garnett’s looking for a watch, but hustler and braggart Ratner can’t resist showing him the uncut gem he’s just procured from Ethiopia. Ratner plans to sell the dazzling stone at auction and score big. But “KG” is taken with the gem and thinks it might be a good luck charm. Ratner reluctantly lets him borrow it for one game and takes Garnett’s Celtics championship ring in exchange.

The Safdies direct with a head-spinning pace and intense closeups that create claustrophobia; every scene feels like a roller coaster ride. Ratner’s energy is so on-the-edge that you know he can only crash and burn. Sandler is at once magnetic and manic; passionate and obnoxious. But you root for him, and that’s what gives the movie its urgency and power.

Credit the Safdies for assembling a cast that includes many non-professionals who bring a gritty, streetwise look and feel to the film. There’s Julia Fox as Sandler’s employee and mistress who has a memorable sequence at Foxwoods Casino late in the film. There’s the pawnbroker who looks and sounds every bit like the real New York pawnbroker he is. There are a pair of sleazy, scruffy loan sharks on Ratner’s tail. These colorful characters are mixed with veteran actors Eric Bogosian as Ratner’s menacing brother-inlaw, and Menzel, full of disgust and contempt for her soon-to-be ex-husband.

Then there’s Garnett. This isn’t just a cameo but a full, rich performance. Once KG is convinced that the iridescent opal is his good luck charm, Ratner goes all in on a big bet. The Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers game footage, glimpsed on TV screens at Foxwoods and in Ratner’s cramped store, has the heart-racing tension of a high-wire act.

There is a lot to admire in “Uncut Gems,” but after a while, the hyper action, the yelling and cursing, and the propulsive soundtrack, become annoying and wearying. Thankfully, the Safdies include a couple of welcome, toned-down scenes, including a warm and comical Passover seder with Judd Hirsch in fine form as Dinah’s disapproving but soft-hearted father. When Ratner recites the plagues, it not only gives Sandler the chance for some levity, it’s also a telling dramatic moment. Ratner is about to bring a mountain of trouble raining down on himself.

2 responses to “There’s Nothing Fake About ‘Uncut Gems’”

  1. Tim Jones says:

    Uncut Gems took place in Mohegan Sun Casio.. not Foxwoods.

  2. Diane Daddario Pfautz says:

    I saw it yesterday with friends. The women liked it, the men did not. Adam Sandler was excellent and I adjusted to the frenetic pace of the movie. It kept us talking all the way home.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.