The Cobbler

Adam Sandler doesn’t rise to the usual level of director Tom McCarthy in The Cobbler, nor does McCarthy succumb to Sandler’s typical shtick. Instead, they meet somewhere in the middle, to the benefit of neither.

An odd mix of broad comedy and quaint nostalgia, this flailing attempt at crowd-pleasing comedy attracted a strong cast to thankless roles, which take a backseat to a supernatural gimmick that’s mildly amusing at first but quickly starts to feel more like a kick to the groin with a steel-toe boot.

Sandler plays Max, a fourth-generation Jewish cobbler who runs the family business in Brooklyn even though he’s losing passion for the work. When a temperamental customer (Cliff “Method Man” Smith) is late for a pickup of his repaired shoes, Max tries them on and somehow assumes the identity of the owner. The same thing happens with every other pair of like-sized shoes in his inventory. He traces the phenomenon to some magical stitching in an heirloom sewing machine left to him by his father.

Max uses his strange powers in predictable ways at first — picking up women, playing jokes on his neighbors, and energizing his dull routine — and it soon backfires in ways that are equally predictable once he figures out that he can never remove his footwear.

He winds up morphing into a sort-of eccentric blue-collar superhero in loafers and white socks, eventually deciding to use the ability to walk in someone else’s shoes as part of an anti-gentrification effort aimed at stopping a greedy neighborhood developer (Ellen Barkin).

Perhaps it’s a misguided attempt for the inventive filmmaker behind The Visitor and Win Win to deliver a more mainstream comic vehicle, but McCarthy would be advised to stick with the type of thoughtful and character-driven material he does best.

Instead, this effort positions itself as an idealistic parable about the halcyon days of thriving small businesses woven into the fabric of the community, and preserving their socioeconomic value. That’s a message that hardly needs to be sold, yet the film’s half-hearted commentary about grassroots activism feels muddled amid all the shoe-switching shenanigans.

The Cobbler still managed to lure an ensemble cast that includes Steve Buscemi, Dan Stevens, and Dustin Hoffman, whose appearances only serve as further evidence of the squandered potential in a labored film that’s lacking heart but has plenty of soles.

Rated PG-13, 98 minutes.