There’s an old adage that to know a man you must walk in his shoes and on that basis, Paul Sado and co-writer/director Thomas McCarthy have penned this fantastical fable of a downtrodden cobbler who finds a new lease on life through magic.
In modern day New York, Max Simkin (Adam Sandler) is a fourth generation Jewish shoe repairer. He’s bored with life and the family business but sees no escape from his old fashioned world. His perky shop neighbour (Steve Buscemi) keeps his mood afloat as best as he can, but Simkin has no life, no girl and no future.
When a thug (Cliff “Method Man” Smith) enters his shop demanding his shoes be repaired by a certain hour, Simkin’s equipment breaks down and he uncovers an old family stitching machine hidden in the basement. He soon discovers that any shoe he wears after it has been repaired by this machine turns him into a duplicate of that person.
The whimsical effect of this discovery soon turns sour when Simkin finds himself embroiled in the thug’s life and an attempted plot by an evil property developer (Ellen Barkin) to take over the neighbourhood.
The film is a far cry from Sandler’s normal comedies, this one being a relatively gentle fairy tale that avoids his usual antics in favour of an evenly paced drama with many light moments. With such a stellar cast, which also includes Melonie Diaz and a cameo by Dustin Hoffman, one would expect such a romanticised variation of TV’s Quantam Leap premise to be far more considered than it is.
While enjoyably engaging, there are many missed opportunities for both laughs and tension, with the film failing to reach the heights one anticipates. Whether deliberate or not, Sado and McCarthy’s script plays with stereotypes, including that of the bleak Jewish mentality and, when first making his discovery, Simkin commits two minor crimes, both times as black men. For a tale of a man finding his place in his world, there’s no great journey and no great depth to any of the characters.
On the plus side, the film puts a twist on the modern day phenomenon of one actor playing multiple roles. In this instance, multiple actors get to play with mimicking Sandler’s character and they all do it well despite avoiding the many comic opportunities open to them.
Although far from perfect in many ways, The Cobbler is a straight-to-DVD release that most should find agreeable overall.
Reviewed by Rod Lewis
Twitter: @StrtegicRetweet
Rating out of 10: 6
The Cobbler will be released on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital on 17 June 2015.
More News
