Spanglish

Spanglish is an emotionally engaging dramedy with excellent actors and a lot of heartwarming moments. But with its 130-minute runtime, it’s too long, which isn’t helped by its meandering plot and spatial monotony (constant sitcom interiors). Brooks should have pared it down and focused only on the positive influence that the two female visitors have on the running of a complicated American family. The conscientiousness of the female protagonist, who steadfastly wants to protect her daughter from Americanism, is inappropriately woven into this storyline and only slows the whole film down, though the climax, which relates to that idea, is nice. (07/05/2005)