I took my family to go see this opening night because my daughter is a big Timmee fan. Suffice it to say, this is not a great Christmas-with-the-family movie. I missed part of the middle because one of my kids couldn’t handle the anxiety and I had to run him home.
I wouldn’t consider myself a huge Safdie fan, but I’ve enjoyed their work. Benny’s a solid actor; The Curse is a masterpiece of weird; I haven’t seen Good Time but people seem to really enjoy it; and Uncut Gems is a masterpiece, IMHO (more on that in the spoilers). Of course, Benny had nothing to do with Marty and so now, especially after the lukewarm reception to The Smashing Machine, much is being made of the differences between the brothers.
The stuff I can say without spoilers – the writing is excellent, the characters are all interesting, with lots of on-brand odd casting decisions that all seem to work amazingly. Kevin O’Leary, of Shark Tank fame, plays a prominent role and crushes it. There are cameos that you’ll recognize and lots that are deep, deep cuts. As a period piece, it’s great, and the cinematography is beautiful. As a movie, it deserves all the buzz its getting. I would even say Timmee’s Oscar talk is justifiable. As a story, though…
Look, I loved Uncut Gems. As a narrative, it is a true embodiment of the anxiety that must be Howard Ratner’s life. The movie makes you feel what it must be like to be a degenerate gambler chasing that next score. It’s extremely effective story telling. Adam Sandler imbues the roll with personality – you feel for him, you want him to win even though he has this addiction in his life that ruins everything. Despite being a fairly straightforward anti-hero movie, the execution is like nothing I’ve ever seen before.
Marty Mauser, however, is not Howard Ratner. His addiction, I guess, is ambition. He wants to be famous, and table tennis is simply a means to that end. Like Ratner, he lives life on the edges of legality, but unlike Ratner, he has no reason to. He has a good job, he’s successful with the ladies, he’s making a name for himself in his chosen sport/hobby. The crisis, such as there is one, is that he might have to wait a year to compete in the British Open. That’s it. That’s the stakes that kick off the narrative.
And in order to resolve this crisis, he’s willing to ruin the lives of everyone around him. He has absolutely no regard for the people in his orbit. He’s just a real big piece of shit. Even when people try to explain to him, “I have a real life, I have responsibilities, I can’t be sucked into this BS with you,” he only thinks about his silly schemes. They have no stakes, though, there’s no ticking clock, there’s no great consequence if his orange ping pong balls or his Japan tour or anything else that motivates him happens to take another year or two. He’s 23, after all. And, sure, this is how the character is written and I’m not saying it’s necessarily unrealistic. Nor am I saying I have to like every protagonist in every movie. But this example is just too much for me. I hated Marty Mauser, I wanted him to fail, I didn’t think he was interesting or charming or entertaining and I just desperately wanted the movie to be about anyone else on the screen.
But things need to happen because it’s a Safdie movie, there needs to be anxiety and excitement and tension, and so we watch Marty be a complete piece of human garbage for 2 and a half hours so the plot can unfold, only to watch him get something that might even be considered a happy ending. Wonderful.
I’ve read some reviews about the themes, which mention that Marty might be an embodiment of post-war American exceptionalism. That is, he’s cocky, brash, thinks he’s the best at everything, and has an utter disdain for the global establishment. I don’t think the movie is that deep. I think Josh and Timmee genuinely think that this particular anti-hero is interesting, and I think I just fundamentally disagree.
Anyway, sorry for the long rant. I think I almost feel guilty for not liking this movie, since it has so many elements I do appreciate and would ordinarily enjoy. It’s got this one, big, flaw, though, front and center, and I just couldn’t get past it.
