Spanglish DVD Review

"SPANGLISH" reviews

DVD

SPANGLISH

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2005-10-27 22:16:49

Provider

DVD Review

Spanglish is the latest film from James L Brooks, a veteran of American film and TV who brought us As Good As It Gets and helped to develop The Simpsons.

Although many of his films are light-hearted, Brooks has a knack for examining issues that the mainstream neglects (like loneliness, old age and racism in As Good As It Gets). Spanglish touches on issues of race, class and family life and concerns a Mexican (Paz Vega) hired as nanny by a wealthy couple (Adam Sandler and Tea Leoni) despite speaking no English.

Although she speaks entirely in Spanish without subtitles, the audience is able to follow her clearly enough, especially since her daughter narrates the story from a distance of five years. Amid the stifling hyper sensitivity of his wife and emotional kids, the nanny soon becomes the unlikely focus of Sandler's character's attentions.

There are some truly entertaining extras here. In addition to the obligatory audio commentary from the director and cast members and deleted scenes with optional commentary, there's a Casting Sessions featurette, How To Make The World's Greatest Sandwich featurette, The Making Of Spanglish featurette and the Spanglish screenplay (DVD-Rom feature).