Spanglish

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There are a number of ways to discuss what could be and should be one of the best movies of the year. Management Science expert, Russell Ackoff, states “To manage a system effectively, you might focus on the interactions of the parts rather than their behavior taken separately.” This would be one way to discuss Spanglish. My wife, noted movie companion and higher household intelligence, sums up this movie with an early management science era term: “hodgepodgy.”

My view is that this good effort is a lukewarm, hodgepodge of separate behaviors. It’s not that Spanglish is unlikable but unfocused; as writer/director James Brooks (As Good As It Gets, Broadcast News) tries to shoehorn a size twelve story into a size six time frame.

John and Deborah Clasky (Adam Sandler and Tia Leoni) – living seemingly perfect lives of ostensibly perfect Angelo’s in nearly perfect California – hire a Mexican immigrant housekeeper, Flor (Paz Vega). The film starts and ends with a tale about Christine (Shelbie Bruce) and her mother Flor, but their tale is soon eaten by the larger dysfunction of the Clasky household. While John; a successful chef and all-around good-guy searches for level terrain in both his personal and professional life, Deborah spends most of her time keeping everyone in the house spinning with her flailing manipulation and over-the-top madness. This should be enough, but thrown in for good measure is Deborah’s mom (Cloris Leachman) and her daughter, Bernice (Sarah Steele), and each of these characters have a story.

Unlike the recent A Day Without A Mexican, Brooks delivers an extremely idealized picture of what undocumented workers deal with when coming to America. Though, this can be better than the jobless prospects faced at home, undocumented work is certainly not the Cinderella-like life portrayed here. The film would have been a more creditable piece had it not been quite so myopic here. As it is, the most work Flor does is to straighten a thing or two while she spends most of the movie trying to evade the wrangling tentacles of Deborah. The fact that Flor is drop-dead gorgeous is not lost on John and as Deborah’s gyrations become too much for him to bear he begins to fall in love with the housekeeper.

Thankfully, there are fine character performances from everyone and I left feeling that I would like to have known more about each character. While Sandler may be one of the major comic figures of the day, it’s Leachman’s portrayal of the alcoholic mother that gets the laughs. Both Bruce and Steele, as the daughters, wedged their way into their roles perfectly, and Leoni, though sometimes too much, leaves you thinking that you know someone like her. Paz Vega, newcomer to American films will surely be sought for future films, but I feel it’s her role that displays the primary flaw in the picture. Throughout the film she develops and finalizes an arc with everyone but the insane housewife who causes so much trouble, Deborah. This is like bringing everyone together at the O.K. Corral and skipping the gunfight for malted’s.

Ironically, the most defining thing about this movie is it’s title. The word Spanglish, the indistinct love-child noun of Spanish and English, is the perfect title for this out of focus film. Good for video or afternoon cheap seats but don’t pay night fare for this.