New movie reviews, DVD reviews, interviews, and all things film.

Follow Me

• Dark Shadows ***
• Darling Companion **1/2
• God Bless America ***
• Marvel's The Avengers ***1/2
• ReGeneration ***
• Sound of My Voice ***
• The Pirates! Band of Misfits ***1/2
• The Raven ***
• Safe **1/2
• The Lucky One 1/2*
• 4:44 Last Day on Earth **1/2
• Blue Like Jazz **
• The Cabin in the Woods ***1/2
• Damsels in Distress ***1/2
• Lockout **1/2
• The Three Stooges ***
• The Turin Horse ****
• We Have a Pope **1/2
• American Reunion **
• Goon ***
• More

• Bird of Paradise
• Maniac Cop
• Miss Representation
• Mother's Day (2012)
• Murder Obsession
• Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie
• Underworld Awakening
• The Vow
• Clueless
• Haywire
• Hit!
• Men in Black
• New Year's Eve
• The Red House
• More

• Peter Lord
• Abel Ferrara
• Nicholas Sparks
• Whit Stillman
• Sean Hayes
• Terence Davies
• Peter Lord Interview
• Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
• Taika Waititi
• Will Ferrell
• Interview: Ewan McGregor [SF Examiner]
• Interview: the 'Project X' stars [SF Examiner]
• Interview: Oren Moverman
• Interview: Rachel McAdams
• Interview: Ti West
• Interview: Elizabeth Banks
• 2011: The Year's Best Films
• Year's Best DVDs and Blu-Rays
• San Francisco Film Critics Circle Awards
• The Decade's Ten Best Films: 2000-2009
• My Top 100 Films [Updated]
• My Top 60 Directors [Updated]
• Christmas Movies
• Essential Halloween & Horror Movies
• Cult Movies
• More Features and Interviews

• Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas, by Alonso Duralde
• Not Quite a Memoir: Of Films, Books, the World, by Judy Stone
• James Agee: The Library of America Collection, by James Agee
• Just Making Movies, by Ronald L. Davis
• More Books

• Home
• Reviews A-C
• Reviews D-F
• Reviews G-J
• Reviews K-M
• Reviews N-Q
• Reviews R-T
• Reviews U-Z

The online film magazine Combustible Celluloid offers new movie reviews, DVD reviews, film reviews, actor interviews, actress interviews, director interviews, film books and all things cinema related for the thoughtful and passionate. Online for ten years! Over 3000 reviews!

SEARCH MOVIES / CELEB

Spanglish (2004)

Rating: 2 1/2 Stars (out of 4)

Servant Dish

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy Spanglish on DVD.

Writer/director James L. Brooks returns from a seven-year absence with this supposed cross-cultural comedy. Like many of his films, it's loaded with great bits of writing and plenty of character traits for talented actors to sink their chops into. It very nearly gets to the same soap opera level of tear-jerking that his Oscar-winner Terms of Endearment reached. But it leaves too many nagging questions and steers away from too many ideas to achieve greatness. Successful chef John Clasky (Adam Sandler) lives with his neurotic wife Deborah (Tea Leoni), their daughter Bernice (Sarah Steele) and her mother Evelyn (Cloris Leachman). To ease the household burden, Deborah hires a ridiculously gorgeous Mexican maid, Flor (Paz Vega), who has a daughter of her own (Shelbie Bruce). The movie rolls along at a carefree pace while Deborah has an offscreen affair with a real estate agent (Thomas Haden Church) and her passive husband slowly drifts away from her and toward the warm, comfortable Flor. Everyone gets a subplot: Deborah worries about her place in the world and overcompensates by jogging. She also worries about her daughter's weight and buys clothes that are too small in hopes of encouraging her. Mom drinks too much, but sobers up with no trouble when her wisdom is required. And John worries that his restaurant will get too good a review and attract too much attention, while Flor slowly learns English and gets too involved with her Anglo family. (Why the white characters couldn't learn a bit of Spanish is never addressed.) The entire ensemble is excellent, including Sandler and making special note of Vega's English language debut (she was previously seen in Sex and Lucia and Talk to Her). With these characters Brooks conjures up a few devastatingly truthful moments, and the overall result feels just about right.

Starring: Adam Sandler, Tea Leoni, Paz Vega, Cloris Leachman, Sarah Steele, Shelbie Bruce, Thomas Haden Church
Written by: James L. Brooks
Directed by: James L. Brooks
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some sexual content and brief language
Running Time: 130 minutes
Date: December 17, 2004