Review of Spanglish (2004) by Harry W — 04 Sep 2013

Spanglish is hugely scattershot because its overloaded with cataclysm and a lot of complex dramatics, but its well acted and is undeniably sweet.

In an attempt to fit it into being both comedy and drama, Spanglish succeeds to a certain extent. It's obviously a drama at heart, but it succeeds at light comedy in parts which makes it easier to watch.

Plus it covers themes of identity crisis, family values, self image and the pros and cons of cross-cultural communications. Much of the time James L. Brooks tries to cram too much in there and can't keep up with the scale of the impact this many dynamics would have, but overall it holds interest through this many themes. I doesn't explore them all as thoroughly as it should considering how many its presenting, but it maintains interest at a fairly decent quantity, even if it is inconsistent.

And plus Spanglish is strongly acted.

Paz Vega makes a breakthrough in Spanglish, because despite being a woman unable to speak English she breezes through Spanglish, giving sufficient depth and sweetness to her character, as well as determination. Her line delivery and emotional articulation are skilful, and she shows off her talents to English-speaking audiences as Flor Moreni develops as a character, because we feel like we're witnessing Paz Vega actually develop as a person in the process, and its quite great to witness.

Adam Sandler also gives one of his significantly more thoughtful performances, working an understanding of his character's emotions and issues and conveying the right response even when his character may not understand it. Spanglish features some of Adam Sandler's finest dramatic work.

And Tea Leoni gives some of her finest efforts. She has a complicated job of playing a woman with so many serious issues, but she sets herself up to the challenge and works it well. She manipulates the complex emotions of her character very well and conveys strong stress in her voice. She fits her role very well.

And the primary comedic success comes from Cloris Leachmen who provides a light sweet humour to the story and balances the heavily-dramatic characters with some enlightenment. She provides a good laugh here and there at the right moments, and she's good to have on board.

Lastly, Sarah Steele does a great job in her role as the daughter of the family because she brings a certain special quality of her own, with a certain sweetness befitting to her part as well as the understanding of the drama in the complicated relationship which she uses to help things move along.

Amongst its issues is the fact that Spanglish constantly flips back and fourth between multiple plots and too many subplots for it to deal with, and it does this with no consistency in the pacing, making us feel alienated from all the characters except Flor Moreni because we're unsure of what to keep up on and what is in actuality occurring. That throws the enjoyment factor off because there's too much to keep up with in no linear or sequential order, and it seems like James L. Brooks gave a directional effort too scattered for the good of Spanglish, and so if anyone is at fault here its him. I don't know how he boosted such a simple movie into becoming a scattered $80 million film, but if its anything like what he did to the film How Do You Know which bombed worse than Spanglish and a budget of $120 Million ($50 million of which was the main stars' salaries and his own payment for being director) then I wouldn't be surprised. His direction isn't one with effort, its slow and meticulous, and he renders his story uneven and ambiguous in how it closes, making viewers walk away from the film confused and uncertain.

But although his direction works against the film, the actors work hard enough to keep it held aloft and good overall as a light dramedy.