Review: "Uncut Gems" Bets Big with Exciting Results

Scene from Uncut Gems

It's safe to say that Howard "Bling" Ratner (Adam Sandler) hasn't done anything with his life. It may not seem that way because he is one of the most respected jewelry salesmen in New York, managing to have a personal connection to NBA star Kevin Garnett. He is capable of making a profit with simple negotiation tactics and high-risk betting. One would assume that Howard is a very lucky man, but over the course of co-directors, Josh and Benny Safdie's neurotic masterpiece Uncut Gems, his life begins to unwind as one bad deal leads to a downward spiral of choices that puts him further in debt with mobsters that want him dead. Still, with no actual skill except negotiation, how does he stand any chance of making it out alive? It's the type of radical survival skills that makes Sandler's performance so electric, serving as one of his best. For a man who doesn't have much to show for himself that he personally earned, it's a story of desperation that shows the problem with the American dream when all you want is to get rich.

The prize at the center of the film is a gemstone that is so valuable that he had to cut it out of a fish illegally transported to America. This is going to be his big sale. If he can make the most money off of it, he will have an undeniable reputation. All he has to do is sell it in such a way that causes several sales that are devious and find him pleasing many parties that want him dead. He's a great jeweler, but a lousy father. The only way that he bonds with his son is to share the wealth he earned, such as Garnett's championship ring. There is the sense that this wealth symbolizes something great to the Ratner family. He becomes known as a "crazy-ass Jew" because of his ability to appeal to Garnett's posse with crazy merch that includes a blinged-out Furby with shifting eyes. It's all pointless flair, but Howard believes that it gives him self-worth. Given that he's unable to do much else but negotiate, it's kind of true. Unlike Garnett, he can't play basketball. He can't take care of his family without having an affair. So much is wrong, and all because he's searching for worth instead of earning it personally.

One of the smartest moves that the Safdie Brothers do is use Sandler in a way that is reminiscent of his persona. As an actor who has played the everyman in some of the broadest comedies of the past 30 years, he comes to this role bringing a neurosis that is ready to get beaten up, yelling his way through trouble while suffering panic attacks and adrenaline-fueled fights set to a perfectly manic and hazy Daniel Lopatin score. Very little separates Howard from Billy Madison as both are short-fuses desperately trying to be taken seriously in delusional ways. It's appalling to see how hard Howard tries to get out of the hole he dug. Even then, half of the dialogue and moments feel reminiscent of juvenile comedies, but placed in a dark and gritty crime drama, often shot from aerial exterior shots as if Howard is hiding in plain sight from trouble. He jokes about how gems give him sexual pleasure, and his opening scene is all about how clean his colon is. It may all seem silly, but it reflects a man who has avoided trouble by his own wits, living for a product that will sit on a shelf or serve as some symbolic good luck charm. What's it all for?

To watch Sandler fade further into his own protective neurosis is to witness one of the best performances of the year. His persona slowly breaks down from confident to the insecure man, swinging all of his limbs in an attempt to keep people from catching onto his plan. He gets into fights easily, becoming paranoid when a mob starts stalking him at his child's school. When it gets to the end, everything has gone wrong, so he falls into a haunting calm, speaking dead-eyed into his enemy's face as if ready to perform a sadistic task. It works because Sandler has always been good at having tantrums, and this is one of the few times where it has been served for a deeper dramatic effect. As he blankly says "This is how I win," he's talking about his own self-worth. He can't play basketball, so he bets on. He needs that rush in his life because, without it, he's a boring, poor man without any reason to live, which is saying something about his family.

The Safdie Brothers continue to update the crime drama better than just about everyone by making it feel like every frame was chaotically taped together and barely released. This is their slowest burn, finding a character who exits like a can of soda moments before being shaken. When it opens, it can't be held responsible for the chaos that flies everywhere. The feeling of constant surveillance only adds to the paranoia as Lopatin's score manages to make the viewer feel scared about every moment of this morally derailing individual. The third act finds Howard grasping at straws, and the payoff is one with such a specific payoff that the viewer becomes thrilled to hear Howard yelling at the TV. It doesn't matter if Garnett is having an off night. His life is on the line if Garnett fails even slightly. He's desperate for this random sense of luck to fall. The way that the Safdie Brothers shoot the final 30 minutes is a radical shift of tension and high emotions, finding Howard cornered and managing to get out in an impressively deceptive manner.

Uncut Gems is one of the most exciting films of 2019 thanks to a performance only Sandler could pull off. While he's been known to have high-energy panic attacks, it's rarely been more horrifying and dramatic than it is here. He's practically ready to rip heads off when things go awry, and the slow burn as he loses his cool is a fascinating character study about a man who has nothing to offer the world. He's not a creator. He merely gets rich off of other people's efforts, and his disregard only makes him worse. He's another figure in the Safdie Brothers' filmography that is so awful that you can't help but watch his downward spiral unfold on a public street as runs through a crowd, pushing every roadblock of a person behind him if it buys him even a few seconds. It's all so that he can sell a gem that means the world to him. His whole life is built around it, and everything will crumble without it. The fact that it happens in unexpected ways makes the ride there all the more exciting and this film one of the greatest manic adventures of the year.