"Uncut Gems": Grand illusions

An actress not long ago said it did not matter if she liked or disliked characters she played; it was only important to understand them. Pretty much the same thing might be said about moviegoers: they won't mind if a screen character is terrible as long as they can see why. The biggest problem, then, with "Uncut Gems" is that the explanation for the central character is only that he is not nearly as smart as he thinks he is; beyond that, we see that he is an ass to everyone around him, but never why he is such an ass.

This, I admit, is contrarian. The movie has gotten raves from reviewers -- 92 percent on Rotten Tomatoes at this writing -- with Oscar talk attached to Adam Sandler for adding this bold, bracing performance to his short list of departures from often stupid comedies. The comedies, of course, are his bread and butter; "Murder Mystery" was reportedly the most-watched original on Netflix in 2019, and many of my Film Appreciation students last term love his work. But there's also been the Sandler of "Punch-Drunk Love" and "Funny People" who reminded folks that he could act when he chose to, and "Uncut Gems" finds him fully in that mode, conveying the daring, foolishness and delusions in his character, Howard Ratner -- turning the notions underlying more familiar Sandler characters into something meaner, more anxious, sad.

Ratner is, after all, a desperate man from the beginning of "Uncut Gems," the latest work by writer-director brothers Josh and Benny Safdie. And the movie overall is awash in discomfort, starting with the overly loud music in the beginning and the anarchy embodied in crowded, overlapping dialogue, as well as the dropping into the middle of a life and into relationships which are not always clear.

Ratner, the centerpiece, has made his small fortune by selling jewelry to athletes, with basketball star Kevin Garnett (as himself) the latest possible customer, brought to Ratner by his associate Demany (LaKeith Stanfield). But that's not enough for Ratner. He has gambled compulsively and unsuccessfully, and is in debt to just about everyone. His marriage is also crumbling, with his wife (Idina Menzel) preparing for a divorce and his mistress (Julia Fox) not a certainty in his life, either. The key to Ratner's survival may be an a massive, uncut opal he hopes to auction off for a big payday, but the stone gets dragged into other Ratner schemes, his gambling debts are mounting, and disaster never seems far off.

Ratner bobs and weaves and paces everywhere, often seeming certain that he can pull off one more play even as the players close in on him. And the film does move, nervously, energetically, with Ratner and the other players in convoluted, occasionally violent maneuvers, and a foiled scheme here followed by another scheme there.

Raw language aside, this could have been a vehicle for a young Tony Curtis or Kirk Douglas. But those films might have made us, if not care, at least have a sense of the what and why of their characters and that is the place where "Uncut Gems" falls short. All this maneuvering has to be for something more than the broad compulsion that drives Ratner. Characters in his orbit such as Demany and Garnett have obvious motivations for their actions. Ratner is just a machine and as such far less interesting, far from full understanding as a character.