“Uncut Gems” doesn’t just offer up the anomaly of Adam Sandler, an actor best known for broad comedies, venturing into dramatic territory.
Even more unusual, it’s the rare modern movie to include a Passover seder.Directed by brothers Josh and Benny Safdie, “Uncut Gems” follows Howard Ratner (Sandler), a jeweler in New York’s Diamond District.
He’s also a compulsive gambler with questionable judgment, in part because he relishes in the chaos of upping the ante rather than settling his debts.
Howard’s domestic life is equally in disarray — he’s dating his employee Julia (Julia Fox), though he’s still married to Dinah (Idina Menzel).The Passover sequence, centered around one of the holiest holidays in the Jewish religion, gives audiences a brief opportunity to relax in a film that’s otherwise rife with tension.
It’s a fleeting, unfettered look at what a normal life
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