![]() If he’s not obsessing over the game’s outcome – Sandler is hilarious as he quietly curses at the game as it plays on his phone while Howard waits for his youngest son to drift off to sleep next to him – he’s juggling his wife, Dinah, and his girlfriend (and employee) Julia. The Safdies give us that, and we also see how Howard’s personality leeches into every other aspect of his life. So, there’s a sick fascination for me with watching a character like Howard Ratner con, obfuscate, and double-talk his way into feeding his addiction for the promised high of a big score. The thought of losing money (especially money I don’t have to lose) gives me hives. If the thought of someone doing something so irresponsible gives you immediate acid reflux, take something before watching Uncut Gems. In the first of many, many jaw-dropping decisions that we watch Howard make throughout the picture, he immediately pawns the ring so he can place a huge bet on Garnett’s game. ![]() All he asks for as collateral is Garnett’s Championship Celtics ring. Howard agrees to lend the opal to Garnett, since it doesn’t have to be at the auction house until the following Monday. Howard spins a hypnotic tale about the journey of the precious black opal, and Garnett becomes convinced that having it will bring him good luck in that night’s NBA playoff game against the Philadelphia 76ers. So, when NBA All-Star Kevin Garnett walks into Howard’s jewelry store, our incorrigible hero capitalizes on the situation. He owes a loan shark named Arno – who we later learn has another surprising connection to Howard – $100,000 that he doesn’t have. He’s sure he’ll get at least that much when the prestigious auction house that he’s going through opens the bidding in a few days.Įxcept Howard can’t wait that long to collect. He assures everyone he tells about the opal that he’s had it appraised for over one million dollars. I used the word priceless, but to Howard, it has a very defined price. It took Howard 18 months of wrangling to secure the gem. It centers on a few days in Howard’s life just as he obtains a priceless black opal which workers unearthed in an Ethiopian mine in 2010. He’s aided in this by the Safdie brothers’ singular directing style and their breakneck-paced screenplay – which they wrote with long-time collaborator Ronald Bronstein. Adam Sandler, in a role he was born to play, gives Howard – and the movie – an unseemly, queasy propulsiveness. It imparts the exhilarating highs and soul-crushing lows of its main character, the inveterate gambler (who is also a conman in his own right) Howard Ratner. The new film from directing team the Safdie brothers is a kinetic roller coaster ride of a movie. I bring this story up because watching Uncut Gems was like reliving those two months all over again, only in concentrated form. While it hurt me financially at the time, I’m privileged enough for it not to have ruined me for long, and it taught me a valuable lesson about fools and their money. ![]() It was exhausting and infuriating, but was ultimately a very good thing to have happen to me. The endless stream of promises – which turned into broken promises, backtracking, new negotiations, and, after I handed over my money, fevered efforts to get my merchandise (which assuredly never existed) – lasted about two months. He assured me I could get a top of the line HDTV for $600 at a time when such an item went for two to three times that price. I never met the conman all messages back and forth were relayed through an intermediary, which should have been my first clue that I was being taken. When I was 23 or 24, I got duped by a conman.
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