'SPANGLISH' Sandler connects, but story doesn't

An overdose of issues and roles harms this family-in-crisis comedy.
By ROGER MOORE
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
The good news for Adam Sandler is that he can put those "Waterboy II: Bottom of the Bucket" plans on hold. With "Spanglish," he realizes a lot of the potential he showed in "Punch Drunk Love" and "Anger Management" -- the potential to work with good directors on good scripts, and not to embarrass himself.
The bad news is "Spanglish" is not a James. L. Brooks ("Broadcast News") classic. There's plenty to chew on and lots that's funny about this patchwork quilt of a family-in-crisis comedy.
But like the lingua of its title, it's got communication issues. It's not quite English, not quite Spanish. And while we might pick up hints, here and there, of what Brooks was shooting for, pulling meaning from it is like dealing with another sort of language barrier.
Dysfunctional family
Deb (Tea Leoni) is a neurotic wife and mother who spreads mayhem wherever she turns. She's married to a star chef (Sandler), who is fighting the consequences great success is exerting on his home life. They have children who bear the brunt of mom's feelings of inadequacy. Deb's mom (Cloris Leachman) lives with them and jokes her way through alcoholism and old age.
Into the mess comes Flor (Paz Vega), a single mom, a Mexican emigre and housekeeper, who is trying to raise her daughter in the chaos of her new employer.
Cristina, Flor's daughter, narrates the movie as an admissions essay to Princeton. Cristina (Shelbie Bruce) recalls the working-class life she and mom left behind in Mexico, the ways they were able to live in the insular not-quite-American Mexican subculture of Los Angeles, where her mother never had to learn English.
Out of control
Then Mom takes a job with the wealthy Claskys, and cultures finally clash, and cute language-and-values barrier jokes abound. Flor and Deb are soon in a tug of war over Cristina's soul. And it's not a fair fight.
Leoni is an engagingly irritating, over-the-top villainess. She's weepy, indulged, spoiled, ready to cast blame and eager to criticize, but unwilling to hear it about herself. You can barely see how she and Sandler's chef would have connected in the first place.
She's manic, spouting whatever's in her head, usually some insecurity that she just has to share with her mother, her husband and her preteen kids. Bernice (Sarah Steele) has to bear the brunt of mom's frustrations. She has inherited Dad's looks, not Mom's Cover Girl face and Runner's World body.
Deb's not coping well with being out of the work force, and her busywork obsessions with shopping, decorating and running are best illustrated in workout togs as she sprints through her trendy neighborhood. She's passing everyone in sight, yelling "Left! Left, LEFT!" so she can get around anyone unlucky enough to jog the same streets.
Hot but miscast
Flor is meant to be the earth mother, the nurturer. She is meant to stand for all those Latinas who cross the border and clean the homes and raise the children of wealthy Angelenos, a piece of the American experience that must hit close to home in Hollywood.
Why Brooks would cast the stunning Spaniard Vega of "Sex and Lucia" and "Talk to Her" is something Brooks himself lampooned in his Hollywood send-up, "I'll Do Anything." She never seems right for the part. But she's hot. Any number of Latina actresses might have been more convincing. Vega, like the Texan playing her daughter, looks, dresses and sounds like a model.
Sandler does a variation of his put-upon guy here, trapped between strong, insistent women. Pushed out of his comfort zone, he gives a solid, sympathetic and believable performance that only breaks down in his big drunk scene.
Oscar-winner Leachman does the cute old wise-cracking drunk thing -- her character used to be a singer -- and the kids are, of course, wise beyond their years.
Muddled plot
A draggy two hours and 11 minutes later, despite some aching moments and adorable laughs, things work out pretty much the way you'd expect.
Brooks, fumbling around with too many characters and too many issues, can't find the heart of the story, or give heart to the part of it he chose to focus on. "Spanglish" manages to be cute and funny, but something was lost in translation.