Adam Sandler’s openness to try out new things has extended—and expanded—his “shelf life” as a screen actor specializing in situational comedy.
While his thespic innovation did work wonders in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Punch-Drunk Love,” his wacky excesses have also yielded three worst actor Razzies (“Big Daddy,” “Jack and Jill,” “That’s My Boy”) from among 20 “citations” since 1997!
SANDLER. Buys his way into the limelight.
Now, as New York cobbler Max Simkin in Thomas McCarthy’s entertaining but flawed supe rnatural parable, “The Cobbler,” Sandler dabbles in magic realism in a vehicle that gives him an opportunity to parlay his likable Everyman appeal into comedic gold.
Bored Max takes care of the shoe shop his “runaway” father (Dustin Hoffman, wasted in a thankless role) had left him—but, he’s discontented about living life on the fringe, always wondering how it is to live in other people’s shoes, and raring for a chance to approach life with danger, excitement and unpredictable thrills!
One day, when his rusty sewing machine conks out, he finds his great-grandfather’s old stitcher in the basement. It turns out that it possesses magical powers that can transform Max into the customers he abhors and envies—from the handsome man-about-town (Dan Stevens) who can get any woman he wants, to the murderous gangster (Cliff “Method Man” Smith) whose dirty money can buy him everything his heart desires!
Soon, Max’s thrilling adventures put his life at risk—but, can he quit while he’s ahead? The movie isn’t seamlessly stitched together, mixing scenes that buzz with brio with disjointed sequences that perpetuate tiresome and unfair caricatures in comedy.
The film’s limitless possibilities (there’s magic, budding romance, industrialization, the plight of the homeless, etc.) give McCarthy a lot to play with—but, his film’s screwy plot twists confound its strengths, and the movie soon becomes an onslaught of melodrama fraught with tedious clichés and overwrought effects.
There are suggestions of spiffy, spunky comedy, but in trying too hard to please its viewers, it winds up with something that never fully engages them.
Sandler shares some moving moments with his character’s aging mother, who longs for the husband who inexplicably left her.
But, when he’s wearing other people’s shoes, Max’s blatant carelessness reveals a lonely man who’s nothing more than a thrill-seeking shadow-dweller, who buys his way into the limelight—and basks in other people’s reflected glory!
Hugh Grant charms again
Hugh Grant has made a lucrative career out of portraying adorable rascals—as he does again in Marc Lawrence’s “The Rewrite.” The film doesn’t offer anything new, but the actor’s skittish charm makes it viewable.
There are cautionary lessons to be learned in Grant’s latest rom-com with Marisa Tomei—about a broke and washed-up Oscar-winning screenwriter, Keith Michaels (Grant), who’s forced to accept a teaching job when writing opportunities in Hollywood dry up.
Keith’s “candor” quickly overstays its welcome when he starts putting his foot in his mouth: He starts an affair with one of his students, gives his class a month-long break, then declares that the ability to write well is a special talent that can’t be taught!
It doesn’t take long for Keith’s asinine arrogance to get him in trouble with the head of the school’s ethics committee (Allison Janney).
His new friend, Holly (Tomei, who does well despite her underwritten character), sees through his vacuous bluster, but can only shake her head in frustration.
Just as Keith discovers the transformative power of teaching, he begins to lose sight of his crack at redemption. —Is it too late to apologize?