A mess in any language

• About the ratings
• Write your own review
• Back to main page

It isn't just the words that hurt 'Spanglish' -- it's the grating actor who's doing the talking

By John DeFore
Special to the American-Statesman

Posted: December 17, 2004

Although 'Spanglish' is afflicted with a variety of ills, Hollywood loves to blame the obvious flaw ("Alexander" bombed because of homophobia, for instance, not because it stinks). So don't be surprised if you see a lot less of Téa Leoni in the next couple of years.

Leoni isn't much worse than the film's contrived plot, mawkish storytelling devices and general unbelievability. But she could easily kill a viewer's interest so quickly and completely that the other, subtler problems pass unnoticed. Her character isn't one we love to hate; she's nails on chalkboard.

Leoni plays a Los Angeles career woman who recently lost her job and is therefore inflicting her endless narcissism on an undeserving family. She's the kind of demon who will surprise a neglected daughter with an armful of new designer clothes only to reveal that she intentionally bought them a size too small, to give the plump but remarkably (unbelievably, you might say) well-adjusted girl a reason to shed some pounds.

Three adults share space in Leoni's household; all of them are appealing in some way, but all are overwhelmed by her presence. Adam Sandler (who in this context is a model of calmness) is a chef so intent on keeping it real that he hopes he won't get a four-star review, because that would draw unwelcome attention to his Edenic restaurant. Cloris Leachman is the alcoholic grandmother who gets the picture's only applause-worthy bit of dialogue, only to have its impact squashed by Leoni. And Paz Vega, the Spanish beauty from "Talk to Her" and "Sex and Lucía," is the new housekeeper, sent by God to teach these hapless Anglos some life lessons. (No, really: She introduces herself to Sandler immediately after he mumbles "Great God in heaven, save me.")

Writer/director James L. Brooks has always crammed a lot into his movies, and this one is no exception. "Spanglish" skewers soulless materialism, trumpets the virtues of staying true to one's roots, tempts both its righteous and its flaky characters with extramarital affairs, proves that a few weeks are enough to learn English and teaches us an old torch song or two.

Unlike Brooks' "Broadcast News" and "As Good As It Gets," though, it can't squeeze many laughs in between the social criticism. In a two-hour-plus film, a little more comedy doesn't seem too much to ask.

The long running time does give us a chance to warm to certain subplots in this cluttered tale. Sandler, a few bits of unbelievable characterization aside, becomes a sympathetic fellow --there isn't a shred of Billy Madison here -- and it isn't hard to imagine a different version of this film that would make his interaction with Vega work; when the two of them have a stretch of screen time to themselves, there almost seems to be a workable angle in this culture-clash family melodrama.

But that angle is lost amid the clatter of directorial missteps and the screech of Leoni's performance. "Spanglish" makes much of the language barrier between a housekeeper and her employers, but some actors can be grating in any tongue.