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How entertaining? ★☆☆☆☆
Thought provoking? ★☆☆☆☆ 4 January 2015
This article is a review of THE COBBLER.Seen at the Toronto International Film Festival 2014. (For more information, click here.)
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“I don’t understand any of this,” Max Simkin (Adam Sandler)
Really Mr Sandler, that’s a surprise. Spending an entire career being shocked/confused wore thin a long time ago. Each time you think he can’t make another atrocious film, Sandler delivers a further stinker. In 2014 it should have all been so different. MEN, WOMEN & CHILDREN had him in Jason Reitman’s usually assured hands, but audiences were drowned in mawkishness. Now Thomas McCarthy (THE STATION AGENT, WIN WIN) founders.
It’s been a long time since THE WEDDING SINGER and PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE. There has also been the underrated FUNNY PEOPLE, not actually amusing, but an imaginative ‘Great Gatsby’ spin, superior to the lavish Baz Luhrmann dud. One never desires to be cruel to a creative, Sandler does have it in him to entertain – see also LITTLE NICKY – the ratio though of the turgid to quality is a little depressing. Must try harder Mr S is the verdict.
Really Mr Sandler, that’s a surprise. Spending an entire career being shocked/confused wore thin a long time ago. Each time you think he can’t make another atrocious film, Sandler delivers a further stinker. In 2014 it should have all been so different. MEN, WOMEN & CHILDREN had him in Jason Reitman’s usually assured hands, but audiences were drowned in mawkishness. Now Thomas McCarthy (THE STATION AGENT, WIN WIN) founders.
It’s been a long time since THE WEDDING SINGER and PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE. There has also been the underrated FUNNY PEOPLE, not actually amusing, but an imaginative ‘Great Gatsby’ spin, superior to the lavish Baz Luhrmann dud. One never desires to be cruel to a creative, Sandler does have it in him to entertain – see also LITTLE NICKY – the ratio though of the turgid to quality is a little depressing. Must try harder Mr S is the verdict.
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Going sad sack, the default mode of Steve Carrell, who himself needs to watch his output, has Max (Sandler) in a rut working at a shoe repair shop. In modern days of throwaway fashion, that the establishment has not gone under is intimated in a cryptic opener – in 1903, a cobbler forefather is called upon by the community for help...
Now in the fourth generation, “Simkin Shoe Repair” on the Lower East Side of the big Apple still gets occasional trade for the expensively booted. Next-door is another old school establishment, “Jimmy’s Barber Shop”, run by the titular, and played by Steve Buscemi in a thankless role. Jimmy has a trait of continually eating pickles. Wait till you find out why. Inanity is taken to a new level. Beyond the director, what drew this cast? Dan Stevens (as an unbelievable playboy DJ) and Dustin Hoffman eventually pop up.
Living with his mother Sarah (Lynn Cohen), the abrupt abandonment, many years earlier by his father (Hoffman), has hollowed out Max. By charging old-fashioned prices, is that meant to show he’s a decent guy? (Reminds me of Seann William Scott’s Kar in BULLETPROOF MONK giving a homeless man a hot dog, a lazy shorthand to convey humanity.) Unattached and forlorn, in walks Carmen (Melonie Diaz), a campaigner looking to help the ordinary folk of the Lower East Side from an unscrupulous property developer, Elaine Greenwald (Ellen Barkin). The broadest of political commentary is ladled on.
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Social analysis is not the agenda, but instead a fairy tale about realising potential and not squandering what life has offered. You see, in the basement of the souter boutique is a magical sewing machine. Once footwear has been stitched, Max can wear said items and be transformed into the appearance of the owner. One kids you not. No explanation is given, bar the machine was a gift as a result of kindness, and no rules are offered, e.g. Is it just the cobbler who gets the power, or anyone with the Simkin name, or does anyone putting on the shoes transform? What happens if the footwear has had multiple owners? Also, why didn’t his father explain any of this? Anyhow, cue a charmless montage of Max trying on forgotten shoes. Then there are sequences of taking advantage of the powers, including not paying a restaurant bill – bland stuff.
Eventually Max is sucked into a local conspiracy and a wooden superhero origin story is born. There is even talk of taking responsibility. Urgh.
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