{"id":882,"date":"2020-04-04T18:12:15","date_gmt":"2020-04-04T18:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/?p=882"},"modified":"2020-04-04T18:12:15","modified_gmt":"2020-04-04T18:12:15","slug":"idina-menzel-is-the-unsung-hero-of-uncut-gems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/idina-menzel-is-the-unsung-hero-of-uncut-gems\/","title":{"rendered":"Idina Menzel is the Unsung Hero of \u2018Uncut Gems\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s been a lot of buzz around the Safdie brothers\u2019 latest film, Uncut Gems.\u00a0<\/em>Most of it surrounds the star, Adam Sandler, and rightfully so \u2014 the actor best known for playing lazy, schlubby manchildren excels in his dramatic role as Howard Ratner, a sleazy, gambling-addicted Jewish diamond district dealer in Manhattan. Sandler\u2019s already getting name-dropped as an Oscar hopeful, and honestly, I see it.<\/p>\n

But to me, there was somebody else who truly stole the spotlight.<\/p>\n

I watched the film with a horrible stomachache the whole time \u2014 and I don\u2019t think it was because of the chicken meatballs I noshed on during the viewing (love you, Alamo Drafthouse). No, it was because this movie is stressful. Like super stressful. Like oh my God, I\u2019m not sure I can keep watching\u2026 but actually I need<\/em> to keep watching\u2026 because I absolutely need to know what happens\u2026 but OH MY GOD IT\u2019S SO STRESSFUL.<\/p>\n

That uneasiness made it all the more noticeable when my stomach unclenched, which happened precisely every time Idina Menzel appeared on screen.<\/p>\n

In a sharp turn from her roles as Queen Elsa and Elphaba, Menzel plays Howard\u2019s wife, Dinah. The couple is essentially separated (they plan on officially telling the kids after Passover), with Howard spending most nights at his New York City apartment with his girlfriend, one of the young employees at his store. Dinah is beyond fed up with Howard\u2019s behavior \u2014 we first see her repeatedly begging him to go say goodnight to his son, which he delays to catch the basketball game he\u2019s placed a large bet on. Her stern, \u201cNow!\u201d eventually gets the job done, said in the tone of voice that could get anyone to do anything \u2014 both powerful and terrifying.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re just looking at minutes on the screen, Menzel\u2019s part is on the smaller side of a supporting role, with much more air time given to Howard\u2019s girlfriend, Julia (played by Julia Fox, a Hollywood newcomer whose performance is also divine), as well as his partners, customers, and collectors \u2014 which makes sense, considering the couple is on the outs. She can\u2019t even be spotted on the movie\u2019s official Instagram account. But every time Menzel is\u00a0<\/em>on screen, she absolutely steals the scene, and by the time I left the theater, she was the one I couldn\u2019t stop thinking about.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s one scene in particular where the Broadway veteran shines. The family has gathered for a Passover seder at Dinah\u2019s parents\u2019 home, where we see all the trappings of a traditional seder: the family taking turns reading from parts of the haggadah; pinky fingers dipping into wine as the plagues are recited; an inappropriate joke about the killing of the firstborn; children searching for the afikomen. At some point after the meal, we see Dinah decked out in a hot pink, puffy-sleeved dress straight out of the \u201980s, as she cheerfully exclaims that she can\u2019t believe her bat mitzvah dress still fits. (Who among us hasn\u2019t tried on our bat mitzvah dress when back home for the holidays?)<\/p>\n

When Howard sees her in the dress, he approaches her with a dopey look on his face and an equally dopey suggestion that the two try to work things out after all. He pleads with her to look at his face to see his true feelings. After a beat, Dinah bursts into laughter, stopping only long enough to tell him he has the stupidest face she\u2019s ever seen. It\u2019s a funny moment \u2014 while intense and suspenseful, the film has moments of great comedic timing \u2014 but what follows is perhaps one of the more heart-wrenching conversations we get.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you must be the most annoying man alive,\u201d Dinah tells Howard, still with a gentle smile on her face. She goes on to say that if she had it her way, she\u2019d never see him again. Before Howard has a chance to respond, a gaggle of female relatives gather around and fawn over how good Dinah looks in the dress, and Howard quietly backs away. It could almost make you feel bad for him, if you hadn\u2019t just spent the first half of the film seeing him for all his egregious flaws.<\/p>\n

\u201cIdina\u2019s character is the one person who\u2019s not falling for Howard\u2019s shit,\u201d Josh Safdie told\u00a0Inside Hook. <\/em>\u201cShe\u2019s reacting as any reasonable person would react\u2026 She\u2019s where the buck stops.\u201d Menzel echoed this sentiment in an interview with Variety, <\/em>saying, \u201cI feel like I\u2019m the only one in the movie that\u2019s kind of like the truth serum person for [Howard]. The only time he literally comes home and has a reality check. The only sort of reprieve in that whole crazy ride in the film.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps that\u2019s why her character stands out so much in a movie full of liars and cheaters (and The Weeknd), but it\u2019s Menzel\u2019s delivery that turns the long-suffering wife \u2014 a trope we\u2019ve certainly seen before \u2014 into her own fully fleshed out creation, dishing out cutting truths in a hot pink dress that would make anybody else look utterly ridiculous.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an exciting role for Menzel, who\u2019s been busy these days with squeaky clean roles in the Frozen\u00a0<\/em>sequel and holiday revues. To hear the voice from \u201cLet It Go\u201d unrepentantly call her husband a fuck-up is not without its joys \u2014 though it\u2019s also not surprising to hear that Menzel is the kind of person who would call Sandler\u2019s kids while on set and sing to them.<\/p>\n

So yes, go see\u00a0Uncut Gems\u00a0<\/em>for what might be Adam Sandler\u2019s most masterful role yet, but stay for Idina Menzel chewing him out in an old bat mitzvah dress on Passover.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s been a lot of buzz around the Safdie brothers\u2019 latest film, Uncut Gems.\u00a0Most of it surrounds the star, Adam Sandler, and rightfully so \u2014 the actor best known for playing lazy, schlubby manchildren excels in his dramatic role as Howard Ratner, a sleazy, gambling-addicted Jewish diamond district […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":883,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[56,54],"class_list":["post-882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-56","tag-uncut-gems"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/uncut_gems_0366987_C-scaled-e1586023902791.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Srnq-ee","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=882"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":884,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882\/revisions\/884"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}