Line #53 Film/TheCobbler


1	[[quoteright:270:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_cobbler.jpg]]
2
3	''The Cobbler'' is a 2014 comedy-drama film written and directed by Tom [=McCarthy=] and starring Creator/AdamSandler, Melonie Diaz, [[Music/WuTangClan Method Man]], Creator/SteveBuscemi, Creator/EllenBarkin, Creator/DanStevens, and Creator/DustinHoffman.
4
5	Max Simpkin (Sandler) is a lonely, schlubby cobbler in his 40s who lives with his mother while continuing to run the shoe repair business founded by his family decades ago. One day, after his electronic stitching machine breaks down, Max unearths a manual stitching device once owned by his now-absent father (Hoffman), and after repairing the shoes discovers something remarkable: when he wears shoes repaired with the device, he transforms into the shoe's owners.
6
7	Energized by his discovery, Max finds himself in a series of adventures as he tries out the lives of his customers, stages a make-believe reunion between his mother and father, and fights back against a gentrification campaign in his neighborhood led by corrupt businesswoman Elaine Greenawalt (Barkin). Eventually, he discovers he is a part of a world much bigger than he ever imagined.
8
9	----
10	!!This film provides examples of:
11
12	* ActorAllusion: When Max gets home from work and opens his fridge to pick a beverage, he has two options: a beer or a Yoohoo. The Yoohoo is a nod to Creator/AdamSandler's film ''Film/BigDaddy'' (1999) when he explains to the kids on the playground "Ya know what's good? Yoohoo with a bit of rum."
13	* AgeCut: An interesting version. The opening AMinorKidroduction ends with little Max watching his father working the stitching machine that produces a loud repetitive sound. Then the scene dissolves into adult Max sitting on a train while the sound the car produces on the tracks matches the sound of the stitching machine.
14	* AppliedPhlebotinum: The manual shoe-stitcher, although Max can only use shoes that are his size, 10 12.
15	* AsianSpeekeeEngrish: When Max steps into the shoes of an Asian man, he is surprised to hear himself talk Engrish.
16	* AssholeVictim: {{Jerkass}} Ludlow. When he is accidentally killed by Max, nobody really feels sorry for him.
17	* BedTrick: Max, disguised as the hot boyfriend of a girl he likes, is [[ShowerOfLove invited to join her in the shower]] and jumps at the opportunity... until he realizes he'd have to take off his shoes to do so.
18	* BookEnds: The story starts and ends with the father's retelling of the OldBeggarTest incident.
19	* BoundAndGagged: Ludlow wakes up bound and gagged in his flat after Max took him out with a taser gun.
20	* BrokenAesop: Many have noticed that despite the obvious "learn things by walking in other people's shoes" message, Max doesn't treat any of the other bodies he uses as anything more than tools, and plays their personalities as broad stereotypes.
21	* ChekhovMIA: As the rule states, a DisappearedDad who is not dead, will eventually return later in the story.
22	* ChekhovsGun: Jimmy asks Max at the beginning of the movie if he gave his mother the pears Jimmy had gotten her. Later when Max's father was having dinner with his mom, it's mentioned that he went missing after going out to get some pears.
23	* ChekhovsGunman: The newsreporter who is introduced early on comes back at the end during the EngineeredPublicConfession.
24	* CombatStilettos: Courtesy of a local drag queen, and later accidentally weaponized by Max.
25	* ConcealingCanvas: Ludlow has a safe behind his bathroom mirror where he keeps his precious watches.
26	* CryIntoChest: When Max finds his mother dead in her bed, he starts crying in her chest.
27	* DaddyHadAGoodReasonForAbandoningYou: It was to protect his family.
28	* DisappearedDad: Max's father Abraham.
29	* DistantPrologue: The movie starts out with an ''Film/ASeriousMan''-style Yiddish language prologue set decades before the events proper.
30	* DramaticDrop: Max drops a glass of water out of shock in the scene where his father [[spoiler:reveals himself]].
31	* EngineeredPublicConfession: While Elaine Greenawalt [[JustBetweenYouAndMe believes she is in private]] with Mr. Solomon, she threatens to kill him and his daughter if he doesn't let go of his apartment. What she doesn't realize is that a newsman captured the conversation on tape from behind the door.
32	* EurekaMoment: First Max doesn't understand why only certain shoes are equipped with the power. Then he has an eureka moment and rushes into the basement to check on the stitching machine.
33	* ExactEavesdropping: Max wakes up in the backseat of the henchmen's car at about the right time to overhear them talking about their plans.
34	* FaintInShock: When Max transforms in front of a boy in the street, the latter faints as he cannot cope with what he was witnessing.
35	* GenreShift: The movie goes from somber comedy-drama to magical realism comedy, to [[spoiler: a bizarre superhero origin story of sorts]].
36	* GoingToTheStore: Max's dad disappeared for good after going out to fetch some pears.
37	* GoodTimesMontage: The dinner date of Max (pretending to be his father) and his mum is depicted in a montage of happy moments.
38	* ItsNotYouItsMyEnemies: Max's father explains that he left his family and went undercover because he feared for their lives and this was the only way he could protect them.
39	* ItWasHereISwear: After Max kills Ludlow, he turns himself in and returns to the crime scene with two detectives. But now the body is gone and the blood-stained carpet looks clean. Max is flabbergasted and the detectives believe they have been taken for a ride by a lunatic. Little did they know, Max had a MysteriousProtector.
40	* JobTitle: Max is a cobbler.
41	* MilkmanConspiracy: [[spoiler:Cobblers have secretly been using their shapeshifting powers to fight injustice for centuries, and Max is the latest addition to their ranks]].
42	* AMinorKidroduction: The movie opens with a scene showing Max as a little boy watching his father at work. The rest of the film deals with Max in his adult life.
43	* MommasBoy: Max, being in his forties, still lives with his mother.
44	* MorphicResonance: Max keeps his red scarf whenever he is a different character.
45	* NeverGiveTheCaptainAStraightAnswer: When Max questions his father about the stitching machine in the end, the latter doesn't answer but leads him into the basement to present him his TrophyRoom of shoes.
46	* NiceJewishBoy: Max fits the bill.
47	* OldBeggarTest: This trope builds the backstory to how the magical shoe-stitcher device became the cobbler family's heirloom. Max's father recounts the story in the beginning of the movie:
48	--> '''Abraham''': A long time ago, on the coldest of winter nights, a vagrant came knocking at the door of our shop. Your great-great-grandfather gave him shelter when no one else would. He fed the man, mended his shoes... In the morning, the vagrant was gone but in his place was this sticker machine.
49	* PacifismBackfire: In one scene Max impersonates Ludlow and saves another criminal from being killed. His kindness is not being repaid as later said baddie turns out to be an UngratefulBastard who kidnaps Max (disguised as Ludlow) in order to off him and pities him for his poor choice.
50	* PowerUpFood: Eating pickles makes it easier to handle the transition from one body to another. Really.
51	* TheReveal: [[spoiler:Max's barber friend [[MysteriousParent turns out to have been his father]] all along, driven into hiding to escape retribution from those he angered as part of the [[MilkmanConspiracy cobbler corps]]. ]]
52	* ScaryBlackMan: Ludlow, the casually violent gangster played by Method Man.
53	* ScatterbrainedSenior: Max's mother obviously suffers from senile dementia. In one scene Max finds her purse in the microwave.
54	* SceneryCensor: There is a [[https://web.archive.org/web/20160927122554/http://i.imgur.com/wcNHaBP.png frontal shot]] of the girl in the shower where her breasts are covered by the shower curtains.
55	* SecretIdentity: [[spoiler:The barber, who turns out to be Max' father]].
56	* SurpriseCarCrash: The hero is kidnapped and put into the backseat of a car. While the co-driver talks to him, the car inexplicably collides with an obstacle. The scene [[FadeToWhite fades to white]] and the hero awakes at his friend's place, implying his friend [[CarFu rammed the baddies with his own car]] to save the hero.
57	* TestesTest: Max tries on a woman's heels to make sure the transformation is really happening. One hand down his pants later reveals that it is.
58	* TransformationTrinket: Any size 10 12 shoes can become this if repaired by Max's device. [[spoiler: Max's father is later revealed to have a veritable Batcave of shoes to use for fighting crime]].
59	* UnspokenPlanGuarantee: The audience is not let in on Max's plan to bring down Elaine Greenawalt. And of course, everything worked out nicely.
60	* VanityLicensePlate: In the closing scene, Max's father rides a limousine with the license plate "2Cobble".
61	* VillainousGentrification: The regular people of New York's Lower East Side are forced out of their houses by real estate developers so they can turn the area into luxury housing and retail spaces. Of course, the hero brings these plans to a stop.
62	* YiddishAsASecondLanguage: The Jews speak Yiddish in the opening sequence, set in Max's childhood.

Context Film / TheCobbler