In 1903, a group of Jewish men gather in a New York City cobbler's shop to discuss a thug who has been harassing their families and businesses. The cobbler, Pinchas Simkin, takes a pair of the thug's shoes to a special stitching machine, and explains to his son how important the machine is.
In the present day, Pinchas's great-grandson, Max Simkin, is the cobbler. Jimmy operates the barber shop next door. Carmen Herrera, a young woman, fights against realtors who are tearing down parts of the neighborhood to build huge complexes. Max seems disinterested in the shop, lives with his ailing mother, Sarah, and misses his father, Abraham.
Local thug, Leon Ludlow, brings his shoes to the shop to resole them. Max's stitching machine fails, so he uses Pinchas's. Max tries on Ludlow's shoes, and transforms into Ludlow. He uses the machine on other shoes, and realizes what he can do with it.
Max experiments with living as someone else; going to Chinatown as a Chinese man; going to a restaurant as one and leaving as another, not paying. Taryn brings in her British boyfriend Emiliano's shoes, and Max uses them. As Emiliano, he goes to a bar and is noticed by women. One approaches him, noting that she once saw him leaving with a man. At Emiliano's home, Taryn invites him to take a shower with her. He eagerly begins undressing, but leaves when he realizes that he must take off his shoes. Max decides to make his mother happy by using his father's shoes. Having dinner with Sarah as Abraham gives her one more night of happiness.
The next morning, Sarah has died, so he and his family sit shiva for the week. When he returns to work, Ludlow demands his shoes. Using several pairs of shoes to disguise himself, Max follows Ludlow to his apartment, witnessing Ludlow extorting businesses. Ludlow's girlfriend, Macy, allows Max into Ludlow's apartment as she leaves Ludlow. Max searches for Ludlow's watch collection, and finds a cache of weapons. Ludlow returns and throttles Max, who is still in Ludlow's shoes. Max tasers him and ties him up. Still disguised, Max goes with two of Ludlow's associates to a man being tortured, and calls off the henchmen. Afterward, they meet slumlord, Elaine Greenawalt, who gives him an envelope filled with cash to buy out a tenant.
Max returns to Ludlow's apartment wearing someone's stilettos, but Ludlow has gotten free of his restraints. Ludlow ambushes and attempts to kill Max. During the scuffle, Ludlow is stabbed with a stiletto and killed. Max reports the killing to the police, but they find no evidence. Returning to the shoe-repair shop, Max finds that the stilettos have returned to the shop counter, along with his bag of shoes and the envelope of cash. Jimmy confronts Max about his recent odd behavior, telling Max the secret; that his father did the same thing before he disappeared.
Max and Carmen visit Mr. Solomon, the man who Greenawalt has been threatening. Despite the threats, Mr. Solomon refuses to leave. Max devises a plot to bilk Greenawalt of thousands of dollars while letting Solomon keep his home. When Greenawalt realizes the trick, she threatens Solomon. Max has arranged to have the threat recorded by the local news, and Greenawalt is arrested.
As Max's life returns to normal, Carmen enters the shop and invites him to dinner. Impersonating Ludlow, he gives the watches to Macy, apologizing. As he leaves, he is abducted by a group of men led by the man he had saved. They are about to drive away when their car is struck.
Max awakens in Jimmy's barber shop. When Jimmy assists him with his body transition, Jimmy reveals himself to be Abraham, Max's father. The real Jimmy is in the Caribbean. Both elated and angry, Max hugs his dad, and Abraham shows his huge collection of shoes to his son. Abraham takes Max through the city in his limousine, telling him the story of how the stitching machine came into their family.
The Cobbler was released in a limited release and through video on demand on March 13, 2015,[12] and since its release, it has been reported to be the biggest box-office flop of Adam Sandler's career – earning only $24,000 at the U.S. box office in its opening weekend.[13] Outside of North America, the film earned $6.5 million[3] and another $2.3 million from domestic video sales.[14]
Critical response
The Cobbler was panned by critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 10%, based on 72 reviews, with a weighted average score of 3.2/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "The Cobbler represents a slight step up from Adam Sandler's recent comedies, but while its cloying sentiment proves a more palatable substitute for his usual crass humor, it still isn't terribly compelling."[15] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 23 out of 100, based on reviews from 22 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[16]
Uri Klein of Haaretz pointed out that while The Cobbler is "one of the few times in Sandler's career in which he has chosen to work for a director with a certain pedigree", and "the plot has fantastical impersonation elements that links it to comedians of an earlier era, such as Jerry Lewis and Danny Kaye", the result is unsatisfying in terms of both plot and characters.[17]The A.V. Club chose the film as the worst film of 2015.[18]The Cobbler was discussed extensively on the October 22nd episode of Chapo Trap House during which the film was largely panned by the show's hosts.[19]
Jared Mobarak of The Film Stage gave the film a positive review, noting that "embraces its slightness to warm hearts" and praised Method Man in particular for his performance.[20]
Lawsuit
The Cobbler was a litigant to lawsuit,[21] where an individual was accused of illegally downloading this movie.[22] The significance is that the judge ruled that the IP address provided by the Internet Service Provider did not meet the test to definitively associate a person with a specific activity.[23]
^D'Angelo, Mike; Dowd, A.A.; Hassenger, Jesse; Murray, Noel; Nayman, Adam; Schager, Nick; Vishnevetsky, Ignatiy (December 16, 2015). "The 20 worst films of 2015". A.V. Club. Archived from the original on August 17, 2017. Retrieved September 9, 2016. 1. The Cobbler [...] The consensus winner (or is that loser?) of this year's bad movie crop, The Cobbler was the kind of commercial and critical failure that would stall even a well-regarded filmmaker's career.
