Uncut Gems (2019)

Adan Sandler’s UNCUT GEMS is a bit like CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM, in the sense that all this character’s miseries are brought on my their own personality, such that it is definitely watching a slow-motion train wreck. Basically he plays a Jewish diamond merchant with a Russian Doll intersecting nest of self-destructive tendencies. Stories are often about revealing true nature, and when there is a real gap between self-image and genuine being, between characterization and character, the results can be spectacular. Such plots squeeze and squeeze until there is o more room to dance, and the character is forced to look directly at what they are, and deal with the consequences. Sometimes, of course, they evade such self-knowledge, while it is revealed to the audience (The Godfather), and sometimes they run smack into it and wake up in time (Groundhog Day). There are of course other options and gradations, but that’s the basic notion.

UNCUT GEMS is one of those stories, and watching Sandler twinkle twinkle twinkle, dance dance dance as the walls close in on this genial nest of emotional snakes is a queasy fascination. I can’t watch it on ENTHUSIASM, because Larry David’s character is so successful in one arena ()career) that he is buffered from the consequences of his asininity, and does not grow. That is essential to a continuing comedy, perhaps, but I prefer the more harmless madness of a Lucy or Rob Petrie to the actions of a man I wouldn’t want to trust as a friend. But watching it in the context of a two-hour drama, where they don’t have to reset the clock every thirty minutes…