USA, 2004
Director: James L. Brooks
Score: **1/2

Flor (Paz Vega) wants her mothering to work. Deb (Tea Leoni) needs to find herself. Chef John (Adam Sandler) has marital problems with wife, Deb.  Deb’s mother Evelyn (Cloris Leachman) is an alcoholic and wants better for her daughter and son-in-law. Even the family dog has problems - obsessed with ball fetching. Such is a James L. Brooks comedy/drama. His characters are dysfunctional in one way or other (Shirley MacLaine’ neurotic mother in TERMS OF ENDEARMENT, Helen Hunt’s ambitious but unfulfilled producer in BROADCAST NEWS and obsessive/compulsive Jack Nicholson’s lover in AS GOOD AS IT GETS). That is where he draws his stories and incidents from. But still, his characters are essentially romantics at heart who find love or at least achieve some goal at the end. Brooks’ SPANGLISH is more ambitious in that it covers the problems of the entire Clasky family including the Mexican housekeeper. The only one left out is the dog.

Brooks centers the story on Flor’s daughter Christina. She narrates the film and the film starts and ends with her.  Flor sneaks Christina and herself across the Mexican/U.S. border and finally find work at the Clasky family.  Cultures, but more importantly, individualities clash. That is as much as need be said about the plot. The success of the film derives on how Brooks ties everything up together, how he makes his characters true and believable and whether he delivers entertainment in the process.

For the first point, Brooks is less successful. Unlike his other films where there is only one main character to deal with, Brooks functions here more as a traffic cop dishing off equal time to each character. The result is that the viewer is never sure where the film is leading. Though this is acceptable in other movies where the film finally heads in a fixed direction or somehow comes together to a satisfactory closure, Brooks lets his characters separate to solve his dilemma. Though it was reported that Brooks did his research on Latinos prior to the film, SPANGLISH still appears contrived. An indication of this occurs at the film’s start where the narrator mentions of Flor and her daughter’s travel to the U.S. in economy class. This means sneaking across the border of course, but for a duo so poor, they somehow managed to pick up quite the ideal luggage. Brooks’ characters are likeable but one wonders about how everyone in the film is so good-looking. One would expect an immigrant looking for work to have much less than a model’s figure. Or the perfect hair! Brooks’ Flor is also a saint without the least of faults. Brooks writes funny enough lines though. The Flor/John confrontation scene done with Christina’s translation is effectively funny. A neighbor’s translation of the surprise line “You are married?” offers two meanings as well. Surprise as in the translation as well as for the translator as the neighbor shows interest in Flor.

Strange enough, SPANGLISH (running a little over the 2-hour mark as all the James L. Brooks films do) is compelling. Despite its flaws, Brooks moves his film at a good pace with jokes, small-talk and incidents appropriately placed. Though a few scenes are stretched out (like the final encounter between Sandler and Paz or the communication between Leachman and Leoni), the viewer never feels it. One reason is the watchable performances from the cast, especially the children. But ultimately, Brooks cannot hide the fact that as good as his intentions might be, SPANGLISH finally emerges as a pretentious (all the Mexicans are drop-dead gorgeous; food and life-style displayed are picture perfect) flawed attempt at having respect for ones individuality.  Incidentally, one film that succeeds admirably in the theme of respect is the currently playing Clint Eastwood film MILLION DOLLAR BABY. SPANGLISH is weak, sentimental and clumsily put together instead of being powerful, violent and wonderfully crafted which are words that can be used to describe the Eastwood film.

One wonders then at the reason behind the box-office successes of Brooks’ previous films. Could it be Jack Nicholson who was in almost every one of them? At least the 40 million Latinos who live in American today and use SPANGLISH (a hybrid of English and Spanish) will guarantee the film does well at the box-office.

Review by Gilbert Seah.