They're all cobblers - and so is the story: Adam Sandler's new movie can't be faulted for its cast but the script is nonsense, writes BRIAN VINER
The Cobblers (12A)
Verdict: Whimsical nonsense
Iris (12A)
Verdict: Sparkling documentary
Max Simkin (Adam Sandler) and his father Abraham (Dustin Hoffman) are cobblers, and so, I’m sorry to say, is this film.
It opens in 1903 on New York’s Lower East Side, where a bunch of Yiddish-speaking men are kvetching, I think the word is, about this and that. When one of them drops in the old saying about not judging a man until you’ve walked a mile in his shoes, the stage is set for one of the clumsiest and most misconceived bursts of whimsy you will ever see.
At first, the film chugs along inoffensively enough. Switching to the present day, Sandler’s character is a mild-mannered shoemaker living with his old mum, and passing the time of day with the barber next door (Steve Buscemi).
Cobblers: Adam Sandler plays Max Simkin in The Cobblers, a movie set in 1903 on New York's Lower East Side
Sandler’s character is a mild-mannered shoemaker living with his old mum, and passing the time of day with the barber next door
The Cobbler certainly can’t be faulted for its cast: whatever you think about Sandler, Buscemi, Hoffman and Ellen Barkin (as a ruthless property-owner) are a classy trio, and Downton fans will be tickled to find Dan Stevens popping up as the local bisexual beefcake.
The nonsense begins when Max discovers that by pulling on other men’s shoes, he turns into them. This miracle, conferred by a magical stitching machine in his basement, finally helps him to make something of his own life by enabling him to improve the lives of others.
It also yields a reunion with the father he thought had abandoned him, and who treats him, and us, to quite possibly the most excruciating line uttered in any movie this year.
Through his shoe repairs, Abraham tells Max, he has become ‘a guardian of souls’. Heaven knows how Hoffman kept a straight face. As I say, pure cobblers.
A documentary of Iris Apfel's life was made by American's great documentary maker, Albert Maysles, shortly before his death
Iris Apfel, pictured in the documentary, is a colourful doyenne of the New York fashion scene and a remarkable free spirit beholden to nobody in matters of taste
■ A Jewish New Yorker with a story much more worthy of attention, and a true one to boot, is Iris Apfel, the singular subject of a lovely, affectionate film completed shortly before he died earlier this year by one of America’s great documentary makers, Albert Maysles.
The 93-year-old Apfel is the colourful doyenne of the New York fashion scene, a remarkable free spirit beholden to nobody in matters of taste. But what is especially startling is not so much the idiosyncrasy of her look as her vibrant mind, quite undimmed by her great age.
Her forensic dissection of the foolishness of cosmetic surgery alone makes the film worth watching.
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