As I mentioned not so long ago, Adam Sandler actually is a fantastic actor despite the trashy films that he is most known for these days so its great to see him in fine form as he is here. This is effectively an in-depth psychological profile of someone of who is addicted not just to gambling but to winning the big score no matter what it takes in order to defy everyone else. It was made by brothers Josh and Benny Safdie whose film Good Time I’d previously featured here.

Howard Ratner is the owner of a jewelry store and despite seeming to be relatively well off is always being hounded by creditors. While he is serving NBA star Kevin Garnett in his store, a large uncut black opal arrives for him from Ethiopia, a deal that he has been working towards for months. The gem is supposed to be put up for auction but Garnett is fascinated by it and asks to keep it overnight as a good luck charm for his upcoming basketball game. In exchange, he gives Howard his NBA Championship ring as collateral. Howard immediately pawns the ring and uses the money to bet on Garnett’s game. He does win but the next day he discovers that the loan shark he owes money to had followed him and stopped the bet to recover the money. Furthermore he is supposed to recover the opal from Garnett but his flunky Demany makes excuses and keep dodging him. Meanwhile Howard has little time for his estranged wife that he is due to divorce or his children and instead finds comfort in his mistress who also works for him at his store.

The entire film is about Howard careening from one self-induced disaster to another as he searches for a big score, always skirting the very edge of total ruin. Every time he gets money into his hands, rather than paying off his debts, he turns around uses it to make ever bigger bets instead. To buy time from his creditors or talk up the value of the opal, he lies, hands out fake Rolexes and even gets his family members to participate in his deceptions. It basically amounts to an in-depth portrait of this specific personality type which is most plainly laid out when Garnett corners Howard and asks him why he is trying so hard with his tricks and scams when he is perfectly willing to buy the opal for a fair price. Howard’s answer is that just as Garnett is an athlete who pushes the limits of what is physically possible, he is a dealmaker who isn’t just content with a fair return on his initial purchase price. He needs to be a huge win in order to prove himself right and everyone wrong and this is what drives him. The frantic energy and manic music of the film all goes towards reinforcing the insane pace of Howard’s life and how he is always juggling balls that he must keep in the air.

One problem is that this film goes a little too far to show how desperate Howard can get. I think all of us can think of someone they know in real life who is at least a little like Howard, except that in his case the dial is turned all the way up to eleven. This is hard to square with how Howard seems to have so far led a fairly prosperous life and a successful business with nice cars and houses and a large network of contacts. Usually people who truly are so awful at controlling their gambling impulses crash and burn all of their contacts long before this. This guy actually has multiple employees who he presumably manages to pay on time! Still it is pretty great how deeply this film goes into exploring this type of personality, even showing how he is frustrated when he complains that nothing is going right as all of his plans are falling apart. Yet he never ever considers changing his approach or that he is the one in the wrong. It simply feels to him that the whole world is against him so he only has to stay strong until by some quirk of fate, he finally scores the long awaited big win.

So no, this is not a film about gems or the jewelry trade at all but it is a fantastically well put together psychological profile of this type of person. A measure of its success may be in how it led my wife and I to have a conversation about this type of person as films that spark interesting discussions are usually something special. You can easily tell why many critics judged this to be the best performance of Adam Sandler’s career and it’s difficult to believe that the directors actually considered someone else for the role at one point.