Spanglish

When a Mexican immigrant (the stunning Paz Vega) and her daughter move to Los Angeles, she gets a job house-sitting for a famous cook (Adam Sandler) and his crazy wife (Téa Leoni). When Leoni screws up with parenting and infidelity issues, Vega is there to comfort Sandler, who more or less has the hots for Vega. Basically, this is a soap opera masquerading as a big-screen movie, but the performers (other than Leoni, who is too shrill) are worth watching. Sandler gets to do his puppy-dog routine, and it works for the most part, while Vega establishes herself as a legitimate star. Cloris Leachman gets her best role in years as Leoni’s mom, a woman with a penchant for drinking before noon. This is one of those films where the problem resolutions feel too tidy, and it has some dreary stretches. Vega and Sandler make up for the stuff that doesn’t work. Leoni does as much as she can with a weird role, so its failure isn’t completely her fault.