Spanglish is framed as a Mexican immigrant daughter’s college admission essay about her & her mother. It is actually a movie written by a guy from New Jersey. There is nothing wrong with a NJ guy writing the movie if the story works, but there is something dreadfully wrong with it if it becomes a cover for the audience to have a reason to root for a guy to cheat on his wife with their hot employee. Pros or what was believable: the daughter interpreting for her mother; the mother rejecting random men’s advances; the daughter adapting as much as possible to her new surroundings, the couple’s daughter; Cloris Leachman doing anything; the mismatch between mothers and daughters. Cons or what wasn’t believable: Téa Leoni’s character, Sandler nudity-just no; a chef who can afford an insanely huge house & being super chill; the employee basically understanding what everyone is saying but not being able to speak in English and more. Téa Leoni deserves some kind of prize for somehow being likable despite playing an awful character with almost no redeeming qualities. Spanglish didn’t know what it really wanted to be about-it was all over the map and eventually the gravity pull to romantic comedy was too strong to resist. I had a problem with the close of the movie-your choice is to be like Paz Vega’s character or reject her by going to private school, enforcing your wages & demanding your money and wanting to get to know people outside of your community and liking it? Isn’t there some kind of middle ground-writes the daughter of an immigrant–when sometimes you embrace and reject some lessons from your mother?