Wear Others’ Shoes And Be A Different Person
Max (Adam Sandler) is here again in a magical and comedy drama as a romantic cobbler. Max is the fourth generation in a long line of cobblers. In this film, he plays the role as shy cobbler who never dated somebody before.
Max is a bachelor and still lives at home with his elderly mother (Lynn Cohen).
Max’s fortunes change the day a neighborhood bully (Method Man) enters the store and demands that his alligator shoes’ damaged soles be sewn on the spot. When Max balks because his stitching machine is broken, menacing Ludlow gives him until the end of day, or else.
After Ludlow storms out, Max ventures into the basement where he finds an antique stitcher which’ll do in a pinch. He repairs the tattered, size 10 1/2 and slips them on, since his feet just happen to be the same size.
Lo and behold, Max gets the shock of his life when he magically morphs into Ludlow. Then, he starts trying on other customers’ shoes, too, and turns into the owner each time.
Curious, Max decides to test this newfound ability to literally walk in another man’s moccasins. He proceeds to make a mess everywhere he goes, even upsetting his mother by walking into the house looking exactly like her long-lost husband (Dustin Hoffman) after donning a pair of his penny loafers.
Written and directed by Thomas McCarthy, The Cobbler has to be considered a big disappointment, given the high expectations set by his impressive earlier offerings which include The Station Agent, Up, Win Win, The Visitor and Million Dollar Arm. Unfortunately, the fatal design flaw here rests with casting, since Adam Sandler tends to fall flat in a flick if he isn’t going full retard, ala his most successful outings as The Waterboy, Happy Gilmore and Billy Madison.
Sorry, Sandler simply isn’t very convincing playing a character with an I.Q.
above room temperature.
The Cobbler
Fair (1 star)
PG-13 for violence, profanity and partial nudity
In English and Yiddish with subtitles
Running time: 98 minutes
Distributor: RLJ / Image Entertainment
Watch The Cobbler trailer:
