The Cobbler
Image Entertainment | Release Date: March 13, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
23
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 22 Critic Reviews
Positive:
2
Mixed:
6
Negative:
14
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
67
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallMar 18, 2015
Flawed as it is, The Cobbler retains interest throughout, chiefly because Sandler isn't bad in a rare semi-dramatic performance. Read full review
63
ObserverRex ReedMar 11, 2015
Written and directed with precision and sensitivity by Thomas McCarthy (The Station Agent), it revives the pleasant art of storytelling most of today’s young filmmakers have all but abandoned, and cures (temporarily, anyway) my allergy to Adam Sandler. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerMolly EichelMar 13, 2015
A film that continues to grow more perplexing as it walks, not runs, toward an unsatisfying end. Read full review
50
Arizona RepublicKerry LengelMar 12, 2015
The Cobbler definitely won't please the audience for Sandler's mainstream blockbusters, and it's unlikely to win him new fans among the indie intelligentsia, either. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyEsther ZuckermanMar 12, 2015
What starts off as a potentially charming fantasy never finds its footing. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeSep 12, 2014
In a movie built on the idea of walking in someone else's shoes, shouldn't learning to see others as more than stereotypes be fairly central to the plot's development? Read full review
40
Time Out LondonTom HuddlestonJul 27, 2015
With its unusual central conceit and awkward, somnambulant pacing, The Cobbler feels like a quirky foreign comedy that’s been mis-translated into English, losing all the subtlety and humour in the process. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesGary GoldsteinMar 12, 2015
The gimmick is marginally amusing as Max tests it out in ways both naughty and nice. But so many holes, questions and contradictions arise that it's hard to square the rules of the game. Read full review
38
Movie NationRoger MooreMar 10, 2015
Whatever McCarthy hoped to do with this thin story and star casting, all he ended up with was another average Sandler movie — not as bad as some, no better than most. Read full review
30
The New York TimesAndy WebsterMar 12, 2015
The sophomoric humor may be absent, but in its place is only a soufflé of whimsy, seasoned with soot, that fails to rise. Read full review
25
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperMar 12, 2015
The Cobbler goes from bad to you-have-to-be-kidding in that final act, when we’re given a big reveal that makes no sense, even in the context of a bat-bleep crazy fable. Read full review
25
Rolling StonePeter TraversMar 12, 2015
Bad things can happen to talented people. Take Tom McCarthy, who wrote and directed "The Station Agent," "The Visitor" and "Win Win." All gems. His fourth film, The Cobbler, is a failure on every level. Read full review
25
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Mar 11, 2015
Maudlin when it’s not being offensive, The Cobbler belongs to that special class of comedy that seems to get worse with every new (mis)step it takes. Read full review
25
The PlaylistKevin JagernauthSep 12, 2014
While the idea is original, it's also ridiculous, and the story is not close to clever enough to put it into any kind of context that is compelling, interesting or believable. Read full review
24
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeMar 13, 2015
When it seems like the movie can’t get worse, it does, with a finale that’s just cringe-inducing and far too neat and tidy. It’s the kind of climax that undoes all of McCarthy and Sandler’s efforts to make us invest in Max and his story. Read full review
20
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriMar 16, 2015
Throughout The Cobbler, Sandler himself seems more invested than he’s been for a long time. But the rest of this ghastly movie lets him down. Read full review
20
VarietyAndrew BarkerSep 12, 2014
The result is a slow-motion zeppelin crash that starts as a dull-edged fable, and then spirals further and further out of control without ever growing more exciting or interesting. Read full review
12
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoMar 13, 2015
The Cobbler is almost fascinatingly awful enough to recommend. If one subscribes to the theory that you can learn as much from a bad movie as from a good one, this one’s a master class in what not to do. Read full review
12
New York PostLou LumenickMar 11, 2015
A painfully earnest and totally unfunny magic-realist fable set on the Lower East Side that works in no way whatsoever. Read full review
12
Slant MagazineChuck BowenMar 7, 2015
Thomas McCarthy evinces no interest in the people who come into Max's store and wind up as fodder for his increasingly violent and self-absorbed escapades. Not a shred. Read full review
10
Village VoiceAmy NicholsonMar 10, 2015
The Cobbler has invented a new category of terrible: cruel schmaltz. Read full review
0
The DissolveNathan RabinMar 12, 2015
The Cobbler is such a weirdly somber comedy that it would almost be in poor taste to laugh during it, though there’s not much danger of that happening. Read full review
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