Film Review: "The Cobbler" (2014).

"Saving the neighborhood one sole at a time." This is The Cobbler. This magic realism comedy-drama film directed by Tom McCarthy, and written by McCarthy and Paul Sado. The film centres on a frustrated shoemaker finds a magical sewing machine that allows him to see the world in a new way by stepping into the lives of his customers.

In late September 2013, Adam Sandler was in talks to star in McCarthy's The Cobbler. By early November, Dan Stevens, Dustin Hoffman, Steve Buscemi, Melonie Diaz, Ellen Barkin, Dascha Polanco, Lynn Cohen, and Fritz Weaver. At the same time, principal photography commenced, and took place in New York City.

The film stars Sandler, Stevens, Hoffman, Buscemi, Diaz, Barkin, Polanco, Cohen, and Weaver.
Sandler continues to be one of our worst leading men, one who falls and couldn't be able to steal a single scene if his career depended on it. Even though aided by a fantastic cast, featuring the reliable Buscemi and the wonderfully strong Hoffman, Sandler and McCarthy are suffering from lack of humour, warmth and pathos. Broad and poorly constructed, it's a lose-lose situation.

Not only is The Cobbler not a morality play; it's also just not a really good story. But it does deal with an issue that couldn't be more poignant: If not we could see the world through the eyes of the people who are somehow connected with, but yet we don't know entirely at all? However, the film is a comedy-drama that tries to be warm-hearted and compassionate and enjoyable without, alas, even trying in being especially remarkable or original, which is a bit of a blow. I thought I could get over it, but, alas, I just couldn't. The film is a flawed effort, without McCarthy being able to pin us down effortlessly, proving there's nothing more to life than trying to connect with complete, random strangers. This latest Adam Sandler vehicle borrows shamelessly from other films that did it much better, and fails to produce the necessary laughs that would forgive such imitation. As a moral fable, the film holds no surprises as a Sandler comedy. It's anything but touching and funny. The typical and, often, tragic nature of a film such as this one is that all of its characters are a caricature, all of its plot points a blatant play for tears or laughs, all of its appeal based on some mythical lowest common denominator. The film is, probably, the slightest, and sappiest, film I have ever witnessed and that might have graced the silver screen. All and all, it's anything but a joy. For all its witty observations on the trials of modern city life, it never strays out of its blinkered cosmopolitan comfort zone. It's anything but honest, insightful, warm, witty, and a delight. While all this may sound a bit contrived, we weren't won over by the simplicity of the characters and of their world. In a divisive career, as well as a young career, the film is already one of the worst for both Sandler and McCarthy.

Simon says The Cobbler receives: