Spanglish

This is a story about an undocumented Mexican woman named Flor (Paz Vega) who moves to the U.S. with her daughter. The story is told via flashback, through voice over by the daughter Cristina (Shelbie Bruce), who wants to attend a prestigious university.

As one might expect, there is a culture clash between Flor and the white family that employs her services for household help--especially as personified by Deborah (Tea Leoni), the mother. It should be noted that Leoni and the entire cast give fantastic performances, even if some of the portrayals are written as caricatures. Adam Sandler, who plays the father, John, is particularly fun to watch, because he mostly plays his character straight, without his usual comedic embellishments. I was most impressed by Sarah Steele, who plays the teenage daughter of Leoni and Sandler.

Much of the story is intended to be comedy, though it deals with social issues that go well beyond the disconnect caused by the fact that the two mothers do not speak a common language. The film has a definite perspective about the various cultural issues it addresses, but it is only partially convincing in its arguments.

I found the film to be disjointed, but that did not bother me. There is so much to appreciate in the story of the two families.

Let me start by saying it's not your just another Adam Sandler movie. Though it has that undercurrent of humor, it's rich with human emotions. Allows and welcomes you to FEEL. Everything about this movie is just so right.

I am not going in to its plot or technicalities because there is no need to (only after watching this movie you'll understand what I am trying to say)

Paz Vega is so convincing (obviously) and outstanding as a caring mother who came to work and better life to US from Mexico with her daughter.

Adam Sandler plays what he plays in almost every movie. A guy with a golden heart. A good, understanding husband. A great father. Make us feel for his character. As always, he is good.

Tea Leoni is superb as frustrated, nagging wife.

Cloris Reachman provides few laughs and she's a delight to watch.

Highly recommend.

Adam Sandler returns to romantic comedy/drama in Spanglish, written and directed by James L. Brooks, who has fine tuned the genre with excellent scripts and sensitive acting (Terms of Endearment, As Good as It Gets). It doesn't quite measure up to his best work, but that's still saying something.

Deborah Clasky (Tea Leoni) hires a housekeeper/cook, Flor Moreno (Paz Vega), who doesn't speak English. Flor, a single mother, has a teenaged daughter, Cristina, and the two eventually move into a summer beach house with Leoni, her two kids, and husband, John Clasky (Adam Sandler), a world renowned chef. Deborah is a nervous, controlling type A personality, who has recently lost her job and begins to question her worth. Her subsequent actions such as lowering the self esteem of her overweight daughter, Bernice, and doting over Flor's daughter without mother's consent starts a sequence of events that pulls the two families apart and draw two frustrated, lonely people together, namely Sandler and Vega. They connect, of course, but what they do about it forms the focus of the storyline. At times this film thematically recalls classics like Roman Holiday or Brief Encounter.

The film begins in such a manner to make one think that it isn't anything special but builds its story and characters into solid foundations until you begin to care about what happens. This is almost two films thematically. There is the developing love story between Sandler and Vega, and there is also the story of Vega, the mother, and her daughter. This is not just a family torn apart or a budding, forbidden romance, it is also the core mother-daughter dynamic seen though the teenaged daughters and their respective mothers. The narrative from Cristina's point of view recalls I Remember Mama. And let us not forget the relationship of Deborah and her own mother (Cloris Leachman-a Brooks alumnus from The Mary Tyler Moore Show). The ending is a bit open ended for one storyline while the other is resolved quite nicely.

At times, the dialogue (a good portion is in Spanish and cleverly translated or communicated through context without subtitles) is crisp and sharp and other times, the story seems to tease without delivering and seemingly loses track until it gets reeled back by a brilliant line or two. Some of the situations seem a bit forced or going nowhere but Brooks has spoiled his audiences with his top flight writing over the years. It is remarkable that he can show lesser filmmakers how to write and construct a superior screenplay about people that an audience cares about. He makes stories about people that matter.

Tea Leoni is good in her role as the neurotic housewife who becomes self absorbed. At times her character downright grates on the nerves, and you wonder how a man like Sandler's compassionate, loving husband/father, puts up with her behavior. Sandler does fine with his down-to-earth, dramatic role which contrasts with his quirky romantic in Punch Drunk Love. One wonders what a stronger persona like Brooks alumnus Jack Nicholson or even Tom Hanks would have done with his role. All the supporting roles are effective as usual. Leachman registers as the mother who consoles her adult daughter and is the voice of reason despite being the family alcoholic. Even the family dog becomes a small but noteworthy supporting character. There is also an amusing cameo by Thomas Haden Church who plays a character not unlike his more substantial role in Sideways.

Production values are strong across the board particularly in the cinematography by John Seale. But it's really all about the writing and the acting. The film feels like it wants to be something more but settles for the quality of a moderate Brooks film like Broadcast News. The film will elicit laughs and some tears but it is consistently engaging. Wouldn't it be nice if more films could even reach that level of writing and acting? Is this a great film? No. It is merely a well written story, and that's pretty good on its own.

SPANGLISH - a term with negative connotation to numerous Spanish-Americans (or at least to the first generation or older immigrants).

As the title implies, the movie makes a very interesting and subtle social commentary about the Mexican American dynamics/contrast in society. Obviously as expected, the film illustrates a few stereotypes. For example, when Florrr's (played by Paz Vega) cousin, Cecilia hit the sliding glass door and her nose bled, the wife Deborah Clasky (played by Tia Leone) offered her money instead. It's sad but true in today's society.

But what make the film interesting are its subtleties. For instance the casting and the characters itself. The producers could have hired a blonde blue eyed male lead instead of Adam Sandler, but they did not. Why? Because Sandler's character (John Clasky) is an antithesis of the wife, Deborah Clasky. She's blonde blue eyed superficial, emotionally disturbed, patronizing, solipsistic, white housewife, who the writer ( Brooks )probably wants to portray as the epitome of everything that is bad about white people - or Americans for that matter (however exaggerated they portrayed her to be). You can empathize with the husband's character and Adam Sandler played it very well. It's interesting to note, the husbands character's last name is Clasky - possibly his ancestors were immigrants as well. And his character is portrayed as someone who "gets it", someone who understands Florrr - an immigrant mother who wants her daughter raised with her own values and integrity even though she is only a lowly servant to the Clasky's.

One of the interesting scenes in the film that I found very clever was the argument between Florrrr and John. It showed the two sides of the dynamic. While I was watching it I thought to myself, any other individual would immediately apologize and patronize the immigrant housemaid in the expense of goodwill. But I was surprised that Sandler's character actually called her a "hypocrite" instead, and she realized he has a point. Not to criticize her (it's probably what Deborah would have done) would be hypocritical as well. This is another social commentary that was written very well and cleverly portrayed in the film.

The acting is equally superb. You could just hate some of the characters specially the housewife and the daughter Cristina Moreno (played by Shelbie Bruce). You can just empathize with Adam Sandler's character and his daughter, Bernice. The only people amongst the Claskys that is very adult. The grandmother's character on the other hand (played by Cloris Leachman ) whose always drinking provides a respite to the insanity in the story and ironically always the unobtrusive and yet emphatic character despite how she lived her life. In the end she was the voice of reason for the wife.

Equally, the dialogue is worth mentioning. Interestingly, there are no subtitles on all the Spanish spoken dialogue but the audience can kind of get the gist of what's being said or argued. It can be distracting to some audiences but thankfully, Florrr's character learned to speak English in the second half of the film. Also, the Spanish without subtitles added a few good scenes in the film and added a positive credence to the title SPANGLISH. It illustrates how to write the quintessential part of the screenplay without making it too cliché.

Overall, I liked this film. If you can look at it in the same light as I saw the film, you would enjoy it too and find it cleverly written and directed. Otherwise, it could be a little slow and the dialogue can be a little bit distracting. It doesn't help some of it is in Spanish and Adam sandler's character cannot express himself very well verbally.

When I heard the title and learned that Adam Sandler was in this movie, I had very low expectations. Boy, was I surprised. This is a wonderful film, not at all the low-level fluff film I expected. All the female actresses, young and old, are absolutely terrific, and Adam Sandler does a respectable job in a semi-serious role. The writing is very clever, and the film will elicit laughter as well as tears. I found my self still thinking about the movie the next day, something that all too often doesn't happen with today's highly forgettable films. One caveat: this is really a movie for teens and up, not a kids' movie. Aside from a bad word or two and a (hilarious) sex scene, the underlying themes are quite adult. Enjoy!