Hulu Fantasy Comedy Sees Billion Dollar Star Work His Magic

The narrative of The Cobbler centers on Adam Sandler’s eponymous shoe repairman Max Simkin, who serves as the owner and sole proprietor of a storefront that has been in his family for generations. Though Max is known to townies and tourists alike as a fixture in his historic New York City neighborhood, he finds very little joy in his work, and seems generally tired of running the shop while caring for his sick mother.

Everything changes for Max one evening when his main stitching machine fails, causing him to blow the dust off of an old unit used by his great-grandfather in the late 19th century.

After using the ancient machine, Max tries on a pair of shoes to see if the stitching is secure, only to glance in the mirror and see that he has transformed into his client, the owner of the shoes. After a brief moment of panic and confusion, the cobbler comes to realize that he can embody any person’s identity, so long as he stitches their shoes with this magical machine.

To test this theory, he stitches up a massive pile of shoes and tries each of them on, taking the form of a Chinese man, an attractive young guy who is popular with the local ladies, and even a dead man, who appears with partially rotten flesh.

Despite a few awkward and problematic sequences wherein Max borrows shoes to take advantage of people and avoid paying for products and services around town, he also dons a few identities for altruistic purposes.

He uses a pair of his late father’s shoes to give his mother a bit of closure, and even works to stop a complex extortion plot that is threatening businesses all over town. By the time The Cobbler comes to a climactic close, the film takes a few more wild twists and turns that I won’t spoil here.

Like many Adam Sandler comedies, The Cobbler was hated by critics, resulting in a paltry 10 percent critic score on Rotten Tomatoes. The film also failed to make a major financial impact upon release, taking in only $6.5 million against an estimated production budget of over $10 million.

Still, some fans of the film appreciated the fascinating storytelling devices, and the performances from the likes of Dustin Hoffman, Steve Buscemi, Melonie Diaz, and rapper Method Man.

REVIEW SCORE

For those interested in checking this film out, or those who feel due for a rewatch, The Cobbler is currently streaming on Hulu. While it’s far from the worst Adam Sandler film to release in the last decade or so, it certainly can’t stand up to his revered works like Uncut Gems or Punch-Drunk Love.