The Chris Moeller Archives

"Spanglish" es muy wonderful

I used to hate Adam Sandler. His movies were mindless, and I feared he had irreparably lowered the audience age demographic of Saturday Night Live. (Tina Fey and Weekend Update later raised it back.) Now Sandler has made, not one, but two excellent films, "Punch-Drunk Love" and "Spanglish." In fact, he not only appeared in them, he was the best part of both of them. I won't give away any plot points, but at one point in "Spanglish" I realized that no other actor could play the part as perfectly light or silly as Sandler does.

I always sensed that "Punch-Drunk Love" was an abberition. The style of the movie was a great departure for Sandler, but he was not transforming his screen persona, a la Jim Carrey in "The Truman Show." Instead, he had hooked up with a talented director (Paul Thomas Anderson) who had written a movie centered around the persona. Sandler would never again be so lucky, I thought. I was wrong. He's been perfectly cast here by writer/director James L. Brooks ("The Mary Tyler Moore Show," "Taxi," Terms of Endearment," "Broadcast News," "The Simpsons," "As Good As It Gets").

Brooks is up to his old tricks. He has a remarkable knack for painting himself into a corner with the drama, and then clawing his way out with laser-beam dialogue. Like "As Good As It Gets," I was convinced halfway through that Brooks wouldn't be able to resolve "Spanglish" to my or anyone else's satisfaction. No plot points here, but case in point in "As Good As It Gets" is the scene between Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt in the restaurant. After already enduring a very rocky relationship, Hunt defies Nicholson to come up with a reason why she shouldn't leave the table and his company. I couldn't have done it. You couldn't have done it. Nicholson's character nails it. Of course, that's also partly the work of the unparalleled Nicholson, and the reason why he has so often been perfectly paired with Brooks.

Gene Siskel used to say that a great movie has two great scenes and no bad ones. One great scene here involves the Latino child interpreting a conversation between her mother and Sandler. The other involves two of the principle characters at Sandler's restaurant. There are no bad scenes. That's two for two on Gene's scale.

You'll also enjoy the work of Cloris Leachman in "Spanglish." Leachman is a graduate of the Des Moines Playhouse, and the purported former paramour of WHO broadcaster Jim Zabel. She took the cliched, crazy granny role here, and raised it to new heights.

(Break to watch Sandler on Letterman)

He has the remarkable ability to endear himself to the audience. He sings a song by the late, beloved Warren Zevon. He talks about his modest upbringing, and implies great affection for his deceased father. A Mayor McCheese joke? It's vintage Sandler. Everyone relates, and he's made himself completely vulnerable before the audience in the tradition of Jolson, Garland, and Sammy Davis Jr. Adam Sandler needs your love. When the vulnerability is an act, Sandler hits with a thud. When it's authentic, he scores.

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Hats off to the city council of Washington D.C. for denying Major League Baseball a new taxpayer funded ballpark. If the corporate thiefs at MLB wanted to hijack another stadium from the American public, they probably should have moved the Expos to the city that hadn't been burned by baseball twice before. The Commissioner's office is claiming to be shocked and disappointed, but the nay vote was a distinct possibility from the time of the move. The nation's capital has learned a little something from the stadium experiences of Detroit, Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh. New stadiums no longer guarantee even short-term profitability for the club or the ballpark neighborhood. The council is only asking for a 50/50 split on the price of construction, and they're going to win the battle. Baseball is running out of options for the orphaned Expos.

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Jim Zabel joke: You can kiss a nun, but don't get in the habit.

posted by CM @ 11:40 PM