THE COBBLER
DIRECTOR: Thomas McCarthy
CAST: Adam Sandler, Steve Buscemi, Dustin Hoffman, Lynn Cohen, Melonie Diaz, Cliff “Method Man” Smith, Ellen Barkin, Dan Stevens
CLASSIFICATION: 13 LV
RUNNING TIME: 98 minutes
RATING: **
Expectations rise when Adam Sandler makes a movie with a director known for something other than Adam Sandler movies. So one might be forgiven for having too-high hopes of The Cobbler, which teams the actor with director Thomas McCarthy. As it turns out, the film is much closer to the usual Sandler vehicle.
In this supernatural parable, Max Simkin (Sandler) operates a shoe-repair shop that has been in the family a long time. When his modern stitching machine goes on the fritz, he discovers that any shoe he works on with his great-grandfather’s ancient stitcher has magical powers: if he can get his feet into those shoes, he is physically transformed into their owner.
Cue a fun sequence in which Max, a middle-aged man who’s been lamenting the schlubbiness of his life, takes some walks on the wild side. He dines-and-dashes at a fancy restaurant in one man’s body; takes a convertible for a joyride in another and wears a Chinese man’s shoes to feel at home on a stroll through Chinatown. In the most imaginative test-drive, he becomes one of the handsome high-lifers (Stevens) who have invaded his neighbourhood over the years: given sudden access to women he has lusted after, Max finds some funny ways to botch the fantasy.
The thoughtful viewer will question the moral ramifications of using someone else’s face to do things that could get a person in trouble. The film is never going to address this, even after it doubles down as Max gets messed up with gangsta Ludlow (Smith), having Max do things that could very easily get somebody else killed.
The script is littered with ideas not fully explored: if, for instance, you wear the shoes of the father who left you years ago (Hoffman) to give your aged mother (Cohen) the romantic reunion dinner she has long pined for, won’t you be expected to at least passionately kiss your own mom, instead of tucking her into bed sweetly and leaving without explanation?
But back to Ludlow, who becomes central to the story. In a movie built on the idea of walking in someone else’s shoes, shouldn’t learning to see others as more than stereotypes be central to the plot’s development? Ludlow remains a crudely drawn thug to the end, a plot-driving caricature.
While impersonating Ludlow, Max learns of a moustache-twirling scheme by a slumlord (Barkin) to force out the last remaining tenant of a building she wants to sell to developers. Here’s a chance for Max to help the tenants’ rights activist (Diaz). The hustle he dreams up is fun and satisfying, but many holes one might poke in its mechanics.
Sandler is agreeably dialled-down here, and not only because, given the transformational conceit, other actors are playing his role when he’d ordinarily be mugging. Buscemi is a key asset. As the barber who has worked next to the cobbler’s shop for decades, he evokes the neighbourhood’s working-class roots and is on hand for the film’s most thematically successful scenes. The credibility he lends is deflated somewhat in the story’s epilogue, whose secrets-exposed fantasy both raises new red flags in the practicality department and diminishes a welcome theme of respect for tradesmen, by suggesting one can easily take on another’s hard-earned craft when needed. – The Hollywood Reporter
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