![]() ![]() (His oldest son uses a few choice curse words, places a bet of his own and is profoundly disappointed when he discovers that his dad is cheating on his mom.) They cause problems for his employees and set a bad example for his kids. Howard’s cursing (more on that in a moment), infidelity and gambling are serious issues. It was a relief when the credits rolled because at least things finally couldn’t get any worse. I personally sat on the edge of my seat waiting for him to change, wanting things to get better, holding my breath for this time to be enough. It’s devastating to watch him repeat the same mistakes over and over. Uncut Gems delivers a brutally accurate portrayal of someone with a deep-seated gambling addiction (among other issues). A woman is repeatedly berated by her boss for showing up late to work. One of Howard’s employees quits because of the drama that happens at Howard’s shop. A man accidentally breaks a glass display case by leaning on it too hard. Howard’s son places a bet with his friend on the outcome of a basketball game. A teenager finds out that his dad is cheating on his mom. (He misses most of his daughter’s school play because he picks a fight with people to whom he owes money and he is too distracted by the outcome of a basketball game to say goodnight to his son.) Howard also says that his children are becoming morons due to a lack of “culture.”Ī video of a colonoscopy is shown while a doctor narrates what is happening. She knows he’s cheating on her and refuses to give him a second chance, since he continually neglects his family. Howard and his wife discuss plans to divorce after Passover. When this strategy fails, he takes advantage of his father-in-law to jack up the bids. When an auction house appraises the gem, they tell him it is worth much less than he thought, and he tries to bully them into lying about the price. Howard pays a group of Ethiopian men $100,000 for a gemstone that he secretly believes is worth $1 million, ripping them off. He is also followed by the henchmen of his brother-in-law throughout the film, pawns off items that don’t belong to him and lies to avoid the people he owes money to. He is involved in several illegal get-rich-quick schemes (he gives away several fake Rolexes and has a valuable opal delivered to him hidden inside a dead fish). Despite promises to pay them back, whenever he gets or earns money, he either spends it on material things or gambles it away. Howard borrows money from multiple people, including his brother-in-law and father-in-law. A bottle of alcohol is intentionally dumped into a fish tank in order to kill the fish. Someone threatens to smash another character’s head through a glass display case. ![]() A woman pretends to punch someone so they will flinch. Later, his girlfriend pulls bloody tissues out of his nose and attempts to clean his still-injured face.Ī guy gets slapped in the face. When he chases down his attacker, he gets hit in the nose by a bodyguard and thrown into a fountain. Someone gets punched in the throat for lying. Two men gang up on a third, ripping his shirt and knocking him to the ground. He also starts a fight at his daughter’s school, biting one of his opponents and leaving a mark before being thrown in the trunk of a car. Howard starts two fights in a nightclub, and several people are punched and manhandled. A man is hung outside of a window by his ankles. Several people push each other and argue as someone pours alcohol on the injury to cleanse it. A young man is carried out of a mine with a heavily bleeding leg injury. Two people are shot point-blank in the head after being threatened. What he lacks in good sense, he makes up for in giving people the runaround, a habit he keeps up until the very end. Unfortunately, none of this has any moral bearing on Howard’s life. However, she’s agreed to wait until after Passover to tell the kids they’re separating. “I think you might be the most annoying person I’ve ever met,” she tells him. In addition to taking advantage of his in-laws, Howard’s cheating on his wife. His brother-in-law, Arno, is so sick of it that he hires some goons to follow Howard and shake him down for the cash. But really, he’s just placing another bet with a bookie in the hope of making a profit on his loans. Howard borrows money from everyone but pays it back to no one. For Howard Ratner, that certainly seems to be the case, since all the money in the world never seems to be quite enough to get rid of his problems. There’s an old Jewish proverb that says money can buy you everything but good sense.
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