Spanglish

A Mexican immigrant in Los Angeles (Paz Vega) goes to work as a housekeeper for an upper-class chef (Adam Sandler) and his family and becomes embroiled in their conflicts and crises—most of them caused by the chef’s selfish, neurotic wife (Téa Leoni). Vega (who looks like a Latina Winona Ryder) is charming and expressive and has a nice rapport with Sandler (restrained and earnest, though he seems miscast). But director James L. Brooks’ script is lumpy with arty dialogue and sitcom clichés, with a tear-sodden last half-hour that taxes the patience. Besides, the most interesting story here isn’t the chef and the housekeeper, or the housekeeper and her assimilating daughter (Shelbie Bruce), but the subplot about the wife, her ugly-duckling daughter (Sarah Steele) and her alcoholic mother (Cloris Leachman).