Review: The Cobbler

"Go where the story takes you" is basic advice that apparently was largely unheeded by those responsible for The Cobbler. It's particularly disappointing to see the slipshod results given the potential of the premise and writer-director Thomas McCarthy's previous work (The Visitor, The Station Agent).

Max Simkin (Adam Sandler) is a fourth-generation cobbler working out of Manhattan's Lower East Side. Still living with his ailing mother (Lynn Cohen) in Sheepshead Bay, Max watches as life passes him by. Being a cobbler is more duty - his father (Dustin Hoffman) abandoned the family years ago - than passion, and Max is wondering what it would be like to be someone else.

Lo and behold, the humble cobbler gets his wish: Max discovers that his great-grandfather's ancient stitching machine has magical powers. Slipping on any shoe repaired with the stitcher results in Max physically transforming into the shoes' owner. "I can be anybody I want," he realises. Soon enough, he's walking through Chinatown in the body of a Chinese customer ("I have an accent!"), joyriding in a convertible in the body of another, and even having women throw themselves at him when he steps into the shoes of the handsome Emiliano (Dan Stevens), who seems to have the life that Max desires. It's not all selfish wish-fulfillment as Max dons his father's shoes to give his mother one last romantic dinner with her long-gone husband. Oedipal complications aside, it's a tender and lovely scene with Hoffman and Cohen establishing a connection that strongly suggests a deep history.

The premise has solid comic and dramatic potential, but its inherent shakiness requires the filmmakers to be confident in the narrative threads they choose to follow. Instead of blinkering themselves to Max's trajectory of discovering his own worth, McCarthy and co-screenwriter Paul Sado weave in and follow other strands that offer nothing but diminishing returns. Max, whilst impersonating street thug Ludlow (Cliff "Method Man" Smith), discovers property developer Elaine Greenawalt's (Ellen Barkin) scheme to buy off or force out the local residents and businesses. The filmmakers hustle up some curiously dark shenanigans that have little to do with the rest of the film. It's a huge directional blunder that may have read well on the page. Yet surely after seeing the dailies, McCarthy would have come to the sensible conclusion that this simply wasn't working. Damage control would have been fairly simple - refocus on Max and / or expand Stevens' role so the Freaky Friday contrivance would have shored up the grass-isn't-always-greener life lesson. There are so many ways in which The Cobbler could have been better, so it's especially baffling as to why McCarthy and Sado botched up their own good idea.

It is a shame since Hoffman, Buscemi, and Stevens do fine work. Sandler, who has looked more and more disinterested with each film, is actually engaged for once and is all the more endearing for it.

The Cobbler

Directed by: Thomas McCarthy

Written by: Thomas McCarthy, Paul Sado

Starring: Adam Sandler, Dustin Hoffman, Steve Buscemi, Cliff "Method Man" Smith, Dan Stevens, Ellen Barkin, Melonie Diaz, Lynn Cohen