There’s usually a monster at the center of James L. Brooks’ movies: Shirley MacLaine’s smothering mother in “Terms of Endearment,” William Hurt’s dangerously callow newsman in “Broadcast News,” Jack Nicholson’s curmudgeonly novelist in “As Good As It Gets.”
But they’re interesting, complicated monsters, and the actors playing them tend to win Oscars or other prizes for exploring the characters’ colorful neuroses.
This is less likely to happen with Brooks’ latest film, “Spanglish,” in which Tea Leoni plays a selfish Bel Air wife and mother who is so destructive on every level that you can’t wait for her comeuppance. By the time she’s punished, unfortunately, the movie has turned into a sluggish, one-sided soap opera that doesn’t know how to put an end to itself.
Deborah Clasky, Leoni’s character, insults people the moment she opens her mouth. She humiliates her pudgy daughter Bernice (Sarah Steele) by buying her clothes that are too tight. When she has sex with her accommodating but exasperated husband, John (Adam Sandler), she attacks him like a mate-devouring insect. She offends their Latina housekeeper, Flor (Paz Vega), and ignores her spirited mother, Evelyn (Cloris Leachman), who relies heavily on alcohol in order to co-exist with her.
Even Deborah’s daily jogging routine becomes an act of aggression toward other pedestrians. When a real-estate agent (Thomas Haden Church from “Sideways”) makes a pass at her, she shamelessly twists self-help language to justify the flirtation. She also has the gall to claim that no one ever pays attention to her feelings.
Too close to caricature, too far from tragedy, Deborah just doesn’t seem worthy of a two-hour-plus drama. Leoni brings a scary, single-minded energy to the role, but it’s never enough to make Deborah anything more than a flamboyant Southern California type. As writer and director, Brooks leaves it to the other actors to make sense of their characters’ tolerance of her.
Leachman is wasted in the early scenes, when she’s used only in predictable reaction shots, but she blossoms when she’s given a chance to demonstrate her character’s experience. Addressing her spoiled daughter, she also delivers the most satisfying zinger: “Lately your low self-esteem is just good common sense.”
Steele has fewer opportunities to rise above her one-note role. Sandler, way beyond his depth, skims the surface as John, a restaurant veteran who has just been named the No. 1 chef in the United States (is that why they all live in such stupefying luxury?).
Vega (from Pedro Almodovar’s “Talk to Her”) is more focused as the housekeeper, who sets out to learn English and finds herself falling for John. Her daughter, Cristina (Aimee Garcia), narrates the story, which is transformed into an essay she’s written to apply for college.
Cristina’s viewpoint turns out to be the most engaging and poignant aspect of the movie, which could be seen as an immigrant child’s exaggerated take on a complex situation. If Brooks had more consistently stayed with her outsider’s interpretation of events, “Spanglish” might have been truly distinctive.