Friday 31 July 2015

"The Cobbler" (Guardian 31/07/15)


The Cobbler *

Dir: Tom McCarthy. With: Adam Sandler, Method Man, Steve Buscemi, Melonie Diaz. 99 mins. Cert: 12A
 
It stars Adam Sandler and, yes, cobbler’s in the title. Make your own jokes, because they’re otherwise lacking here: this botched fantasy – in which Sandler’s downtrodden Max discovers a magical stitching machine that allows him to literally walk a mile in his customers’ shoes – collapses amid attempts to reshape a notionally sincere script to fit an A-list heel. An intriguing Jewish heritage angle is soon overwritten so a bodyswapping Sandler can gawp at boobs; thereafter, it shrugs through boring squabbles with slumlord Ellen Barkin towards a will-this-do? punchline about cobblers being “guardians of soles”. Such indifference may now be expected from the star; coming from Tom McCarthy, writer-director of 2003’s cherishable The Station Agent, it’s an almighty shame. 

The Cobbler opens in cinemas nationwide today.

No comments:

Post a Comment