Spanglish

If you, like me, let bad reviews put you off this effort from reliable veteran James L. Brooks, then take my advice and pay them no mind. The critical response was an interesting phenomenon -- normally intelligent commentators became a pack of baying hounds, deploring the film as “smug ... despicable ... deeply unpleasant.” Anger was rife; one guy even claimed that it showed why the Democrats lost that year’s election (it was one thing for Bush to sieze power, but appalling and infuriating for him actually to win the popular vote after revealing who he truly was.) Sheesh -- maybe the film can be looked at a little more calmly now. It was an admiring reference in Kent Jones’ new collection of film criticism, Physical Evidence, that led me to give the film a chance, and I definitely was won over. Tea Leoni’s portrayal of a Type-A, Bel Air/Malibu, wife and mother was the crux of ire, or rather Brooks’ depiction of her, because no one could argue she didn’t make the role vivid and funny as well as horrifying, only whether her behavior was repellent enough to make her a scapegoat without redeeming qualities. I thought she and the film did a good job of showing that there was a decent person stuggling to emerge from the taut, manic, high-achieving persona. And I thought the film made plausible the unlikely relationship between her and her laid-back husband, Adam Sandler, a seeming doofus who was nonetheless a four-star chef. Into the volatile mix comes the va-va-voom Mexican maid embodied warmly and wisely by Paz Vega. And then there are the adolescent daughters of the antithetical women, played superbly by Sarah Steele and Shelbie Bruce. Cloris Leachman is also excellent as the boozy but experienced live-in mother-in-law. I found the film humorous and poignant, and not at all sit-commy. If you liked Brooks’ work from "Mary Tyler Moore" though Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News, and As Good As It Gets, be assured that this in not the trainwreck that has been reported. And the dvd has an exemplary extra in deleted scenes with commentary, which certainly makes the filmmakers seem more honorable in their intentions than most critics gave them credit for. (2004, dvd, n.) *8* (MC-48.)