I felt the anxiety as he couldn’t get the opal back from KG, and I lost it when that damn door wouldn’t buzz open to allow KG to finally return the stone. And every joy and ray of hope is snatched from his grasp. The simplest stuff becomes immeasurably more complicated in Howard’s incapable hands. It becomes an unwieldy beast pressing forward needlessly and with no regard for the well-being of its characters or viewers. Afterwards, I was begging for it all to stop, and yet, I was committed to seeing how it would all be resolved.įrom that point the plot never stops growing. Howard needs to pay the heavies who are there to collect a debt, he needs to answer the phone, he needs to help a costumer, he needs to stop a fight between KG’s bodyguards and the heavies, he needs to entertain KG, he needs to make sure KG’s earrings get cleaned, he collects a package he had been waiting for for over a year, and ultimately gets it taken from him by KG, and thus the story begins. Crammed in the close confines of his jewelry store are six people too many, causing interweaving storylines for our inept main character to handle. Fine for a transition between two stories, but it becomes overwhelming as Howard Ratner tries to navigate is over-complex and dysfunctional life on screen.Įveryone demands Howard’s attention, and he fully commits it to no one. The music that highlights the visual panorama that bridges Ethiopia (where the first scene takes place) and New York (where the rest of the movie takes place) is loud, bold, and demanding. The first scene where Sandler appears, playing Howard Ratner, felt like being shoved and locked into a small box, a feeling that will be useful to draw from as people get trapped in tight spaces throughout the rest of the film. The movie is an audio-visual stress knot. But the question took on new complexity for me after watching Uncut Gems. Is it possible for a movie to be good when you don’t enjoy any of it? Movie goers butt up against this question in many forms, from people asking them why anyone would pay to be scared in a horror flick, or when they unglue themselves from their seat after an intense war movie.
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