Spanglish (2005)
Direction and screenplay: James L. Brooks. Cast: Adam Sandler, Téa Leoni, Paz Vega, Cloris Leachman, Shelbie Bruce
DISHONESTIDAD
Spanglish is director James L. Brooks' take on ethno-cultural relations in the affluent American Southwest. An interesting idea, except that this sitcom with fairy-tale pretensions misfires on nearly all counts.
Spanish actress Paz Vega is the supermodel-looking undocumented Mexican immigrant who becomes a maid at the rich and dysfunctional American family of Adam Sandler and Téa Leoni.
Leoni has a certain charm, but as the neurotic unwife and unmother she overacts to such an extent that one gets the impression she thinks she's in the film all by herself. Her unhappy character is thus reduced to a pathetic and mean-spirited caricature of a liberated woman — one who has no understanding of the meaning of either personal freedom or personal responsibility.
Vegas' Mexican immigrant is supposed to serve as a healthy contrast to the maladjusted Americans. A slave to the traditional mores of her country — as per those Hollywood films that portray modern Mexico and Mexicans as if their sense of values were still stuck in the 1950s — she turns out to be the wisest and most ethical of the film's characters. And such a caliente Latin mama to boot.
Well, if that sounds condescending it's because it is. Spanglish pretends to be open minded about cultural differences and relations while reinforcing every old stereotype in the book.
Although Adam Sandler is a likable, lowkey romantic hero and Cloris Leachman (replacing Anne Bancroft, who was forced to bow out due to illness) does an outstanding comedic turn as a dipsomaniac on the mend, Spanglish is no more than your usual well-intentioned celluloid example of Hollywood dishonestidad.
Adam Sandler was charming in this movie.