Uncut Gems

Here's the film that I thought about seeing on New Years Day.

Good thing I didn't.

Uncut Gems is a comedy of grievous errors. A lot of things go wrong for one Howard Ratner (Adam Sandler). Some of it is absurd. Some of it is intense. Even both. Who is Howard and what is his life story?

Howard's a jewel dealer in New York in debt to the mob. Specifically, it's to his brother-in-law, Arno (Eric Bogosian). His marriage to Dinah (Idina Menzel) is a sinking ship. His affair with Julia (Julia Fox), an employee, is only slightly better. He hopes to revive his fortunes by selling an uncut opal at auction. Celtics Super Star Kevin Garnett (as himself) wants the opal as a good luck charm. Howard agrees to let him have it for a while. But Garnett wants to hold on to it longer. Unfortunately for Howard, Arno and his two goons have very little patience.

This was directed by filmmaking brothers Ben and Josh Safdie. They and their co-writer, Ronald Bronstein, open their Kafka-esque comedy with a mining accident in Ethiopia. It leads to the discovery of the opal, a surreal trip inside it and then, a surreal trip inside Howard. Weird, no? The rest of the film's 135 minutes show Howard digging his grave with a series of stupid mistakes. He also gets into shouting matches with almost everyone. It proves unbearable after the third or forth argument.

Sandler is slightly compelling as Howard. Yes, he's rude to pretty much everyone throughout the story. But he knows he's a screwup and is trying to do better. Trying, anyway. He doesn't know when to fold it, which directly leads to his final mistake. Indeed, everything that happens to him is his fault. It's hard to care about his ultimate fate.

Among the rest of the cast, Menzel makes the most of her screen time as Dinah. Arno's two goons, Phil (Keith Williams Richards) and Nico (Tommy Kominik), prove even less likable than Howard. Arno himself starts off as a jerk, though we soon see his sympathetic side. Julia is the film's most likable character. Garnett is a standout as himself.

There are two technical standouts. The first is cinematographer Darius Khondji, for his gritty and colorful work. The trips inside the diamond's insides look like a trip through the cosmos. Howard's world is appropriately less colorful. The other star is composer Daniel Lopatin. His booming score makes Howard's dark life most obvious.

Uncut Gems is for anyone who loves the darkest of comedies. It's probably the funniest Kafka-esque comedy ever made. Maybe that's why I barely laughed at all. All the screaming didn't do it for me. See it if you can find some humor in the madness.

Or rather, a diamond in the rough.