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Film review

'Spanglish' doesn't translate to fun

Adam Sandler's low-key performance and James L. Brooks' off-kilter writing and direction won't please either man's fans.

By STEVE PERSALL
Published December 16, 2004

Adam Sandler acts his age in Spanglish while writer-director James L. Brooks isn't acting out his IQ. The filmmaker renowned for his wise, witty tear-tuggers makes so many dreadful miscalculations here, fumbling themes of parenthood, neurosis and professional angst that he previously nailed.

Brooks started with an intriguing idea: Tracing the occasionally precarious bond between mothers and daughters from two cultural perspectives, like splitting Terms of Endearment's memorable hen Aurora Greenway into bilingual halves. Newcomer Paz Vega, a Penelope Cruz type with more charisma, plays Flor, a deserted wife so devoted to her daughter Cristina (Victoria Luna) that they leave Mexico to find a better life in Los Angeles. Tea Leoni plays Deborah Clasky, an upper class nervous wreck (see: Jack Nicholson in As Good As It Gets) who may love her daughter, but her harping conceals it.

Deborah hires Flor as a housekeeper, despite the fact that neither speaks the other's language. Never mind that Deborah, as described, wouldn't want another hassle in her life. Forget that the maid stereotype is faintly racist. The women must be thrown together for the sake of a film that doesn't know what to do with them after it happens.

Of the two women, Flor is definitely the one to follow through a movie. Brooks is too skittish to do that, realizing that stories about foreigners don't sell many tickets. So he adds Sandler as Deborah's suffering husband, John, a world-class chef who doesn't want a 4-star rating from food critics, fearful that success brings discontent (see: Broadcast News). Anyone who felt scammed by Sandler's subdued presence in Punch-Drunk Love should avoid this movie.

John contends with Deborah's anxieties while noticing that Flor is a looker with a nicer personality. Brooks plays that situation close to the vest as well, keeping Deborah's conflict and Flor's comfort zone on John's back burner. So little happens - and repeatedly - amid the triangle that we're drawn to minor, yet sharper details and begin rewriting Brooks' screenplay even as it's unfolding.

Spanglish should be delivered entirely from Flor's and her daughter Cristina's points of view, like a hipper Upstairs, Downstairs. The Claskys' problems could be their lessons in assimilation; what to do right and what not to do wrong. Then you draw more attention to the best characters in the story: beautiful Cristina and Bernice (Sarah Steele), the Claskys' bubbly, brace-teethed, overweight daughter. Let them learn from each other, then the parents from them. And for heaven's sake, lose the alcoholic grandmother (Cloris Leachman), who sobers up in time to deliver the film's message when it really shouldn't be her duty.

Brooks' dialogue zing has deserted him, and many loose ends are strewn about: What about Deborah's affair with a real estate agent (Thomas Haden Church, Sideways), John's restaurant pressures and the Clasky's other child, a son who doesn't do anything for the film? If they're not important, why bring them up, especially in a movie that's too long? Spanglish is so erratic that I fear another 30 minutes lies on a cutting room floor, to be exhumed on DVD.

The performances range from uninspired (Sandler) to way over the top (Leoni), and Brooks can be blamed on each end. You don't hire Sandler, then fail to write convincing material for his passive-aggressive persona. You don't prepare an ensemble piece and make one character, Deborah, seem like she's from another movie. Steele and Luna are fine, but they are occasionally sideswiped by Brooks' quest for the easy emotion.

Spanglish won't satisfy Sandler's fans, nor Brooks', and that's crushing because they're different circles of moviegoers. Hispanic audiences can glean something from Flor's story because her perspective is rarely seen in mainstream movies, not because it's well-done here. The entire project smacks of a filmmaker realizing seven years have passed since his last Oscar winner, so he'd better slap something together before he's forgotten. That's as bad as it gets.

Grade: D

Director: James L. Brooks

Cast: Adam Sandler, Tea Leoni, Paz Vega, Cloris Leachman, Victoria Luna, Sarah Steele

Screenplay: James L. Brooks

Rating: PG-13; profanity, alcohol abuse, sexual content

Running time: 130 min.

[Last modified December 15, 2004, 11:16:09]