CS Daily Archive > Weekend Read > 12/17/04

Uncommonly Good Common Ground

By den shewman

James L. Brooks takes the tale of three parents who just want the best for their loved ones and creates a moving, funny portrait of people trying, and many times failing, to bridge the human communication gap. Spanglish's slow build is worth it to watch Brooks' traditional excellence in playing his characters' day-to-day hopes off of their lifelong dreams.

Spanglish

James L. Brooks (also directed)

James L. Brooks tells the tale of Mexican native Flor Moreno (Paz Vega) sneaks herself and daughter and narrator Cristina (Shelbie Bruce) into the US from Mexico for a better future. Even though she doesn't speak English, Flor lands a housekeeping job for the well-to-do Clasky family and finds common ground with mother Deborah (Téa Leoni), father John (Adam Sandler), Deborah's alcoholic mother Evelyn (Cloris Leachman) and the Clasky's children Bernice and Georgie (Sarah Steele, Ian Hyland). But soon Flor is drawn into, and affected by, the Clasky's struggles: chef John's hot new restaurant, Deborah's desire to be a surrogate best friend/mother to Cristina while continually disconnecting with her own daughter, and Cristina's too-complete assimilation into the upper middle class American way. As life becomes increasingly complicated, and she and John both start expressing feeling that are not deterred by the language barrier, Flor must decide if this life might be too much of a good thing.

Brooks has staked out his own specific territory of true- to-life characters facing, fighting, and trying to best life's challenges big and small. Brooks' characters always seem just one step away from people you've met in life, from Taxi's crew of dreaming-of-a- better-life misfits to the battling Aurora and Emma to the Jane Craig-Tom Grunick-Aaron Altman work/love triangle. in Spanglish, Brooks creates another screenplay's worth of memorable, flawed, trying-their-best- but-is-it-good-enough? characters. And because they're more lifelike and less larger-than- life -- more Carol Connelly than Melvin Udall -- this makes them not only more interesting, but also more instructive in both their successes and their failures.

Brooks draws wonderful portraits of the new immigrants and pairs up two families who are trying their best, in their own ways, to survive life's changes. Flor enters the Clasky's life just as John's restaurant receives a glowing review that makes it the hot new place in town. While this would be great news for anyone, it creates a ripple effect in Deborah's life that she might fill with another man. As Flor becomes further entrenched in the Brentwood home, her lack of English facilitates her unintentional role as mother confessor. Meanwhile, Flor becomes increasingly uncomfortable with Cristina's blossoming under Deborah's vain, materialistic, but strangely well-meaning tutelage. At first it's great -- Cristina's friendship with Bernice is a stabilizing force -- but soon Flor's little girl begins her slide down a slippery slope. This sets up an interesting mother-vs.-mother scenario: Deborah is more of a mother -- or tries to be, in her own way -- to Cristina than she is to her own daughter. And, as in life, everyone except Deborah sees the damage this is doing to her family.

Brooks unfolds his story slowly -- only in a Brooks film could Adam Sandler not even appear until 15 minutes into the film (and even then, it's just for seconds). Brooks' pointillist approach to storytelling uses little moments to illuminate great truths. In an early scene, Bernie's joy at the new clothes Deborah bought her segues quickly into anger, sorrow, and shame when she finds out that Deborah intentionally bought clothes too small because she's sure that Bernice will be losing that extra weight soon. Deborah sees this as incentive, but everyone else just sees its effect on the poor girl. Meanwhile, John finds that even though they can't comprehend one another, he seems to have more of a connection to Flor than his own wife. All these elements are exacerbated when Flor and Cristina join the Claskys at their beach house for the summer, another one of life's opportunities that Brooks uses to deliver both more and less than the participants would hope for.

This study of the disintegration of familial bonds is handled with typical Brooks style: no splashy set pieces, just quiet understated scenes with poetic but believable dialogue. (Even the few scenes of romance and fighting -- sometimes almost the same thing in real life -- are handled with quite aplomb.) The characters are all believable, sometimes too much so; sometimes you wish they'd act like movie heroes and do the right thing. Instead, they do the human thing, and you're invested in them enough to wince at it. Brooks' characters are self-aware, so even when they're doing the human (read: usually wrong) thing, they know the potential for disaster. It's just that, like the rest of us, sometimes they keep on doing things that just dig themselves a deeper hole. These characters don't behave the way we want them to, they behave the way we might, which makes them real, heartrending, and even a touch scary.

All the characters are well-drawn, with only Evelyn's witty alcoholic comic relief slipping into sitcommery once in a while. And even, it's forgiven at film's end with not one but two emotional moments between Evelyn and distanced daughter Deborah in a patented Brooks climax ending that stays true to the characters while giving them exactly what they need (as painful as that may be).

Brooks' meditation on what we do for our families contrasts two very different mothers and two very different methods, yet in the end shows how much we're the same. Much like its title, Spanglish's well-written story shows that finding common ground is easier than we think; it's keeping ourselves in that place that's difficult.

Spanglish
Columbia
Rated PG-13; 128 min.

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Den Shewman wrote a script review for Creative Screenwriting five years ago, and somehow ended up as editor-in- chief of CS Daily. Yet he co-wrote an episode of The New Adventures of Robin Hood (which, according to the producers, was the #2 show in France at the time) and never ended up as executive producer of Maid Marian: Bring It On. More proof that life is not fair.

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