Spanglish

Review by Clint Morris

Adam Sandler may be playing the cook in his latest film, but it's Spanish beauty Paz Vega (pictured right) who's providing the spice.

As curvilinear as Mount Panorama and as alluring as free bubbly, she's quite a spectacle.

And like a splotch of whipped cream, she's also sweet, and combined with her ravishing good looks we've got a character to die for.

Having said that, Spanglish, the latest romantic-comedy from seasoned genre director James L. Brooks (Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News), might be a little undercooked, and without such a terrific ensemble cast headlining the film, it'd be much more obvious that it needed to go back in the oven for a while.

Vega plays a Mexican woman who arrives in Los Angeles, with her daughter in tow, looking for work.

She ends up getting a job as a housekeeper for a talented chef and his slightly-screw loose wife.

She forms an unlikely friendship - after a few run ins - with the male head of the family, giving him someone to confide in when his wife's away playing with a secret lover. Let the laughs, tears, screams and culture-clash bubble over.

Most of Spanglish is terrific viewing, but then, like a roller coaster on its final loop, it takes a final dip and never quite soars as high as its first half. On the other hand, it doesn't really matter, because the performances in this are outstanding.

Sandler gives one of the best performances of his career as the likeable, long-suffering husband, Leoni is appreciably wacko as the serially-confused wife, Cloris Leachman is an accommodating delight as her mother, and then Vega is better than all of them two-fold, and the kids, well, they're just delightful.

Spanglish mightn't razzle-dazzle you with its cinema technique, but it will send you home with a case of the warm and fuzzies and an admiration for those that can actually act afar from the cue-card juncture.

3.5 out of 5

Spanglish
Australian release: Thursday February 17th, 2005
Cast: Adam Sandler, Téa Leoni, Paz Vega, Cloris Leachman, Shelbie Bruce, Sarah Steele.
Director: James L. Brooks.
Website: Click here.

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