(USA, 99 min.)
Dir. Thomas McCarthy, Writ. Thomas McCarthy, Paul Sado
Starring: Adam Sandler, Cliff ‘Method Man’ Smith, Ellen
Barkin, Melonie Diaz
Programme: Special Presentations (World Premiere)
 |
| Photo courtesy of TIFF. |
Oy, The Cobbler is
terrible! The film proves TIFF to be the Launchpad of several awards races
including, well, the Golden Raspberries.
Anyone assuming that this new film from writer/director
Thomas McCarthy (The Visitor, The Station Agent, and Win Win) will feature a new renaissance
for Adam Sandler is dead wrong. The
Cobbler is no Punch Drunk Love.
It’s no Spanglish. It’s not even on
par with Happy Gilmour. Adam Sandler
has not made an indie comedy. Thomas McCarthy has made an Adam Sandler movie.
The Cobbler marks
the most dubious selection at the Toronto International Film Festival this year
because it’s a schmaltzy and stupid misfire on every level. This nonsensical
film stars Sandler as a down on his luck cobbler who discovers the ability to
inhabit the lives of his customers with the help of a magical heirloom in the
cobbleshop basement. It's A Serious Man meets Happy Gilmore as Sandler's Max shoulders his family legacy (introduced in a novel opening scene, which, as is the case with the Coen Brothers film, is the only highlight of the movie) and acts like a little boy.
Max walks a mile in other people’s shoes, and The Cobbler’s first instinct is to let him take advantage of the situation by pulling pranks on others and causing misery. The fantastical escapes are borderline rapey as Max creeps and preys on women because, hey, a guy like Sandler can’t get laid. He punks black dudes, roams Chinatown with an accent, and plays a tranny just for fun. It’s all a case of laughing at, rather than with, the people whose lives Max enjoys so that he can realize that being a working class shoe repairman isn’t all that bad.
Max walks a mile in other people’s shoes, and The Cobbler’s first instinct is to let him take advantage of the situation by pulling pranks on others and causing misery. The fantastical escapes are borderline rapey as Max creeps and preys on women because, hey, a guy like Sandler can’t get laid. He punks black dudes, roams Chinatown with an accent, and plays a tranny just for fun. It’s all a case of laughing at, rather than with, the people whose lives Max enjoys so that he can realize that being a working class shoe repairman isn’t all that bad.
There’s also a half-assed story about condominiums and
gentrification featuring a ruthless slumlord played by Ellen Barkin. You know a film
stinks even when Barkin can’t liven it up. The
Cobbler also throws in a bizarre origins story to make the fable even more
incomprehensible.
That McCarthy delivers such an amateurish flop is shocking.
This film is racist, sexist, homophobic, and it isn’t funny. The Cobbler is pathetically slight and
its attempt to add depth with the condo war simply feels tacked on. The Cobbler officially makes the condo
feel like a cliché as Max joins a turf war.
One expects something this bad from Sandler, but for once
the blame can’t fall on him. Sandler is, of course, expectedly terrible as he
goofs around like a teenager, gets angry, and gets Mr. Deeds-level awkward with the current trend in his career that
tries to mix his frat boy humour with family-friendly sentimentality. Expect
his reign as the Meryl Streep of the Razzies to continue. Hey, if the shoe fits…
Rating: ★ (out of ★★★★★)
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for more information on this year’s Festival.
