Review of Spanglish (2004) by Marcos V — 14 May 2009

This is a contrived, over-bearing, and at times gag-inducing dramedy that tries way too hard to be both funny and touching, and fails miserably at doing both. The characters are obnoxious and incomprehensible and the actors playing them give performances that are way over the top.

James L Brook's laissez faire approach to working with the actors is disastrous here, as even when there is a halfway decently written scene, it isn't played right. Not there are many well written scenes to ruin.

Largely the film is full of puzzling dialogue and unmotivated and muddy character action. One supposedly climactic scene in particular where Tea Leoni reveals she's been having an affair to her husband was so poorly written and performed, that I thought the DVD must have been skipping because the scene made no sense.

Positively, Sandler does do the best job of the cast, and he does manage to strike up some unspoken chemistry with the Latino female lead, but it's squandered every time a scene with them goes longer than 30 seconds and one of them opens their mouths.

How anyone could appreciate anything in this tacky movie really escapes me.