I found this movie on Netflix streaming movies. I had not heard of it before, either it didn't receive much publicity or maybe wasn't well-received. But the synopsis looked interesting.
It is a fantasy, but with a message of hope. Sandler didn't write or direct and he plays one of his more enjoyable characters as a modern day Jewish cobbler, with a little shop in Manhattan's lower east side. He lives with his mother, apparently has no outside interests, is just a dull and quiet person. Adam Sandler is Max Simkin.
The movie actually opens with a scene from 1903, when his grandfather and others are sharing camaraderie and one tells the story of helping a man who then left a shoe stitcher behind. And mentions the phrase "walking in another man's shoes" which becomes the theme of this movie.
Back to present day, Max has a job that needs to be finished that day and his motorized stitcher (sews on leather shoe soles) blows up, the repairman can't come until tomorrow, so he goes into his storage room and digs out the old manual stitcher that he learned to use when he was a kid. He does the repair, the man doesn't show up by 6PM closing time, so on a whim he slips on the other man's shoes, his same size 10 1/2, and sees himself in the mirror. He looks and sounds just like that man. When he figures out it is the magical stitcher he digs up several other old 10 1/2 shoes, stitches the soles on the magical stitcher, and when he puts each on he sees that he looks and sounds like the original owner.
All this sets up the rest of the movie. At first Max does silly things, like having a nice meal at a restaurant, then going to the mens room to change shoes, then slip out without paying, unrecognized. But he quickly figures out he can he a hero, he can save the lower east side from an unscrupulous businesswoman who wants to buy up and evict residents to build modern buildings. To do so gets him in hot water with crooks but he manages to prevail.
Steve Buscemi is good as Jimmy, the barber who has the shop adjacent to Max's cobbler shop. Melonie Diaz (who actually IS from Manhattan's lower east side) is good as Carmen Herrara who is working with a neighborhood preservation group and wants to prevent its demise.
Really good movie, I enjoyed all of it and Sandler plays a mostly straight role with no goofiness and it comes off very well.
SPOILERS: There is an interesting twist after Max manages to save the area and get the crooks arrested. Jimmy confronts Max, and reveals that he has been wearing someone else's shoes, that Jimmy is actually Max's long-gone father who stayed in disguise so many years to protect Max and mom. Seems each generation of the Simkins discovered the magic of the manual stitcher.
It is a fantasy, but with a message of hope. Sandler didn't write or direct and he plays one of his more enjoyable characters as a modern day Jewish cobbler, with a little shop in Manhattan's lower east side. He lives with his mother, apparently has no outside interests, is just a dull and quiet person. Adam Sandler is Max Simkin.
The movie actually opens with a scene from 1903, when his grandfather and others are sharing camaraderie and one tells the story of helping a man who then left a shoe stitcher behind. And mentions the phrase "walking in another man's shoes" which becomes the theme of this movie.
Back to present day, Max has a job that needs to be finished that day and his motorized stitcher (sews on leather shoe soles) blows up, the repairman can't come until tomorrow, so he goes into his storage room and digs out the old manual stitcher that he learned to use when he was a kid. He does the repair, the man doesn't show up by 6PM closing time, so on a whim he slips on the other man's shoes, his same size 10 1/2, and sees himself in the mirror. He looks and sounds just like that man. When he figures out it is the magical stitcher he digs up several other old 10 1/2 shoes, stitches the soles on the magical stitcher, and when he puts each on he sees that he looks and sounds like the original owner.
All this sets up the rest of the movie. At first Max does silly things, like having a nice meal at a restaurant, then going to the mens room to change shoes, then slip out without paying, unrecognized. But he quickly figures out he can he a hero, he can save the lower east side from an unscrupulous businesswoman who wants to buy up and evict residents to build modern buildings. To do so gets him in hot water with crooks but he manages to prevail.
Steve Buscemi is good as Jimmy, the barber who has the shop adjacent to Max's cobbler shop. Melonie Diaz (who actually IS from Manhattan's lower east side) is good as Carmen Herrara who is working with a neighborhood preservation group and wants to prevent its demise.
Really good movie, I enjoyed all of it and Sandler plays a mostly straight role with no goofiness and it comes off very well.
SPOILERS: There is an interesting twist after Max manages to save the area and get the crooks arrested. Jimmy confronts Max, and reveals that he has been wearing someone else's shoes, that Jimmy is actually Max's long-gone father who stayed in disguise so many years to protect Max and mom. Seems each generation of the Simkins discovered the magic of the manual stitcher.