James L. Brooks has made some classic films over the years including As Good As It Gets, Terms of Endearment and Broadcast News plus he’s a co-creator of TV standouts The Simpsons, Taxi and The Mary Tyler Moore Show! Adam Sandler, on the other hand, has not. Okay, some of his movies have been funny (The Waterboy, Happy Madison) and even a couple that are a step above the pre-teen level (The Wedding Singer and especially Punch-Drunk Love) but nothing of the mature, life-affirming nature of Brooks’ oevre.
So we didn’t run out to the cinema to fork over $10 each to see Spanglish when the reviews were, well, half-hearted at best and no friends gave positive (or any) reports. Watching it, though, made me wonder why it didn’t get a better response. This is more the story of a young, unwed Mexican mother trying to make a life for her daughter in a strange land than anything to do with Sandler, and Paz Vega does a superb job as the woman who doesn’t even speak English until nearly the end.
Vega gets tangled up in the lives of Type A mom Tea Leoni, the nearly Zen monk-like Sandler and their two kids. Leoni doesn’t work but needs help taking care of her smart but slightly chubby daughter Berniece, (barely visible, so hard to characterize) younger son George and alcoholic, faded, drunk but able to care and give the occasional bit of sage wisdom singing star mom (Cloris Leachman). Her own daughter, the same age as Leoni’s, cannot resist the lure of wealth so easily but is still the most well-behaved teenager I’ve ever seen.
Anyway, the plot is not so much the point here as the performances Brooks is able to bring out from the cast. Leoni and Leachman are no surprise, and Vega is experienced if unknown in the US (and gorgeous, like Penelope Cruz without the zero percent body fat), but Sandler and the kids are an unexpected pleasure. Particularly Sarah Steele as Berniece but also Shelbie Bruce as her Latina counterpart.
recommended
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