"Spanglish"

Starring Adam Sandler, Tea Leoni, Paz Vega and Cloris Leachman. Directed by James L. Brooks. (2004, Columbia)

'Spanglish' has all the right ingredients but somehow its execution is over-baked despite being in the capable hands of a seasoned director who knows this genre well. It seems everyone here is on autopilot cruising through this movie as if it was automatically going to work without their enthusiastic input. This is a classic example of a Hollywood project being too confident for its own good. Everyone here probably assumed this was a sure-fire Oscar contender so why work any harder? Ironically, 'Spanglish' failed to receive a single Oscar nomination and is far from the masterpiece that should be expected from James L. Brooks. It's not a bad film, just a misguided one with unpleasant characters and a lack of sparkle that should come from a film of this kind.

John and Deborah Clasky (Adam Sandler and Tea Leoni) are a dysfunctional family living a nice, comfortable life in LA. They have two kids Bernie and Georgie (Sarah Steele and Ian Hyland), the loveable pet dog and even Grandma (Cloris Leachman) lives with them. Beneath the surface of their perfect existence, the family is mixed up. In come a new maid Flor (Paz Vega) and her daughter Cristina (Shelbie Bruce) who shakes things up with their adopted family. Will John and Deborah rekindle their dying relationship? Will John fall for Flor? Will Flor lose her daughter's respect to Deborah? Will Deborah realise her own daughter's potential? This melodrama is similar to any family, so why do we care about the Clasky family when most of these characters are very unpleasant? None of these characters are portrayed as real and are ambiguous in their motives and behaviour.

James L. Brooks has made films like 'Terms of Endearment' and 'As Good As It Gets' so he obviously knows this genre well. The problem here is that none of it seems believable and everyone seems superficial. There's no realness and no satisfaction in the development of the story with an ending that is unconvincing. Brooks' also doesn't do his actors any justice by making some of them seem horrible people (Deborah is an awful person) or just plain boring (John). Then there's the focal point of the story - Flor who's motivations seems weird. Did she just want to be a maid? Did she want to be a part of this family? Does she have feelings and emotions? Why is she always upset for no reason? This isn't a peak of James L. Brooks' career.

The poor actors are stuck with superficial, unpleasant and at times boring characters. But they all try very, very hard. Adam Sandler probably doesn't have a remote chance to ever score himself an Oscar nomination, but he is underrated as an actor. Sure, he's a comedian but even though he looks bored with this role, it seems to be a part of his attempt to not overdo his acting. Poor Tea Leoni is given a relentlessly nasty character who does everything wrong in this film but doesn't learn anything. Leoni does a good job trying to make it work, but it's a role that no actress could have pulled off - the writing was too damaging. Then there's Paz Vega as Flor who doesn't radiate and is a mix between Sandler's boring character and Leoni's nasty character. The kids - Shelbie Bruce and Sarah Steele are also annoying as the two girls while Ian Hyland fares slightly better in an underwritten role. On the plus side, Cloris Leachman is superb as Evelyn and steals every scene she is in and even though they have badly written roles, Sandler and Leoni make a nice couple.

'Spanglish' isn't a bad movie, but it's lifeless and overly superficial without a single ounce of honesty. Why would you want to be invested in these characters who aren't very nice to be around (Grandma Evelyn excluded)? The screenplay is full of overly predictable clichés such as the adulterous affair, the love triangle, the daughter who wants her parents' attention etc…it's been done before, so if it needs to be redone, there should be a fresh spin and Brooks' doesn't have much to give us other than a truly horrible family. And why stretch this melodrama out for over 2 ½ hours is anyone's guess and the film reaches its use-by-date after its first hour and languishes with inconsequential subplots for way too long. From the outset, everything about this film looked right but looks can be deceiving.


out of ten

Reviewed by Chris Cappola

Moviemarshal.com home