NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Spanglish (film)

Spanglish is a 2004 American film written and directed by James L. Brooks, and starring Adam Sandler, Téa Leoni, Paz Vega, and Cloris Leachman. Hans Zimmer was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score. It was released in other countries over the first several months of 2005. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (441x655, 55 KB) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... James L. Brooks (born May 9, 1940) is a three-time Academy Award, nineteen-time Emmy and Golden Globe-winning American producer, writer, and film director. ... Richard Sakai is an Academy Award nominated and Emmy winning producer best known for his work on The Simpsons and with James L. Brooks. ... James L. Brooks (born May 9, 1940) is a three-time Academy Award, nineteen-time Emmy and Golden Globe-winning American producer, writer, and film director. ... Adam Richard Sandler (born September 9, 1966) is an American comedian, actor, musician, screenwriter, and film producer. ... TÃ©a Leoni (born February 25, 1966) is an American actress. ... Paz Vega (born Paz Campos Trigo January 2, 1976) is a Spanish actress. ... Cloris Leachman (born April 30, 1926) is an Academy Award-, nine-time Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning American actress of stage, film and television. ... -1... Hans Florian Zimmer (born September 12, 1957) is an Academy Award, Grammy, and Golden Globe award-winning film score composer from Germany. ... John Seale (born October 5, 1942 in Warwick, Queensland, Australia) is an Australian cinematographer. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The Columbia Pictures logo from 1993 to the present Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. ... December 17 is the 351st day of the year (352nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... USD redirects here. ... The year 2004 in film involved some significant events. ... This article is about motion pictures. ... James L. Brooks (born May 9, 1940) is a three-time Academy Award, nineteen-time Emmy and Golden Globe-winning American producer, writer, and film director. ... Adam Richard Sandler (born September 9, 1966) is an American comedian, actor, musician, screenwriter, and film producer. ... TÃ©a Leoni (born February 25, 1966) is an American actress. ... Paz Vega (born Paz Campos Trigo January 2, 1976) is a Spanish actress. ... Cloris Leachman (born April 30, 1926) is an Academy Award-, nine-time Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning American actress of stage, film and television. ... Hans Florian Zimmer (born September 12, 1957) is an Academy Award, Grammy, and Golden Globe award-winning film score composer from Germany. ... The Golden Globe Award The Golden Globe Awards are American awards for motion pictures and television programs, given out each year during a formal dinner. ... For the main article see Golden Globe Awards. ...

The taglines for this movie were: Every family has a hero. and A comedy with a language all its own.

Plot summary

The movie opens showing a Princeton University admissions board reviewing freshman applications and reading the essays that accompany them. The question for the essay is, Who has been the most influential person in your life? Most are met with unremarkable answers and uninteresting explanations, but one essay stands out: that of Cristina Moreno (Shelbie Bruce), who cites her mother, Flor (Paz Vega), as the most influential person in her life. Cristina proceeds to explain, and the movie begins to unfold.

Flor Moreno, a single mother from Mexico, has crossed the border into the United States with her young daughter Cristina, in search of a better life. Flor’s cousin, already in the States, helps her find an apartment and two low-paying jobs. Cristina attends school and over time becomes fluent in the English language. Flor, on the other hand, who is nervous about living in a foreign country in which most of its people speak an alien language, has chosen to seclude herself in the Latina community as she lacks the confidence to break the language barrier. As a result, she continues to conduct her entire American life in Spanish.

Eventually, however, it becomes clear that Flor cannot simply lock herself and Cristina in their own world forever, and so she begins to look for a single job that can provide them with more income. Again, with the help of her cousin as translator, Flor finds a high-paying position as housekeeper in Los Angeles. She finds herself working in the home of the well-to-do Clasky family, which is composed of a successful chef named John (Adam Sandler), his rather immature, self-centered, unemployed, thoroughly unpleasant wife, Deborah (Tea Leoni), their two children Bernice (Sarah Steele) and Georgie (Ian Hyland), and Deborah's mother, retired singer Evelyn Wright (Cloris Leachman).

Immediately Flor is welcomed into the Clasky household. She fills the motherly void that Deborah fails to provide to Bernice and Georgie. Her welcoming presence enlightens Evelyn, and her striking good looks and understanding demeanor make her very attractive to John. Deborah, however, sees Flor a tool to get the dirty work done around the house and disregards her emotions.

Though the Claskys and Flor cannot understand one another because of the language barrier, Flor tries to help out around the house as best she can, even helping Bernice and Georgie during Deborah’s frenetic, childish outbursts. Her job as a housekeeper begins to transform into a live-out domestic work position.

Flor learns that as rich as the Claskys are, they have issues that are equal to, if not worse than, her own. She learns that John is an emotional man (a far cry from the tough, macho Latino men she is accustomed to), and that like herself, Deborah is unable to understand what is best for her family and what makes them happy. To make matters worse, Deborah and John’s marriage is on the rocks. She manages to keep herself aloof from the family’s drama, however this changes when the family decides to rent a summer beach house, requiring Flor to move in with them.

To move in with the Claskys is a big decision for Flor. She wants to keep her independence from the family, however she is in desperate need of the money. Moreover, Flor is proud of her Mexican roots, and does not wish to forget her heritage or the values instilled in her. Wishing for her daughter to be as proud of her roots as she is, she has a hard time taking Christina from the world she knows, and exposing her to the white, upper-class, American life. Flor and Cristina’s relationship is put to the test when Flor reluctantly agrees to accept the live-in domestic position, requiring her to take Christina with her.

The Claskys immediately take to Cristina and treat her like their own. Deborah butters Cristina up and often heaps flattery on her at the expense of her own children, who she usually either ignores or criticizes. Cristina marvels at all that the Claskys have, while Flor watches, forcing herself to be happy for her daughter but watchful of the intrusion into her personal sphere and worried about the outgoing, highly social, impressionable Cristina being taken by Deborah's flattery, glamorous appearance, charm, and wealth.

The real problems begin to surface when Deborah begins to poach on Flor's maternal rights. First, Deborah takes Cristina on a shopping trip without Flor’s permission, and hurts Bernice’s feeling while doing so. John proceeds to give Cristina a large sum of money for sea glass she found on the beach (though as John and Christina explain, she honestly worked for it). Through Christina’s translation, for the first time Flor expresses her discontent with the situation. John is contrite about his error and makes amends to Flor while Deborah is not and only comes up with lame excuses for her behavior, while criticizing Flor.

After recognizing the difficulty in expressing herself to the Claskys verbally, Flor finally decides to learn English to better express herself and to better understand her employers, for Deborah makes minimal effort to understand her. John tries, but does not speak Spanish very well and Deborah is often jealous and resentful of John treating Flor like a person that she is.

In the interim, Deborah manipulates her social connections to get Cristina a scholarship to a very expensive private school, the same school Bernice attends. When Cristina learns this, she is delighted, but Flor is appalled, though Deborah managed to hide that the US$20,000 scholarship was her doing.

When Deborah allows Cristina to sleep over with her friends rather than attending a family affair with her mother as Cristina had originally promised, Flor decides she has had enough and leaves to get her daughter immediately.

Meanwhile, John goes home after work that night to have Deborah reveal that she has been having an affair and is sleeping with their real estate agent. An emotionally shattered John trudges out of the house where he meets Flor, who intended to go to the Clasky household to pick up Cristina and quit her job. The two end up getting into a car and head to John’s restaurant, and it proves an ultimate test for both when they are tempted to engage in an affair. Flor refuses with great difficulty, but not before telling John she loves him. John also expresses his feelings for Flor:

"They should name a gender after you. Looking at you doesn't do it. Staring is the only way that makes any sense. And trying not to blink, so you don't miss anything. And all of that, and you're you. I mean... ok, forgive me. It's just you are drop-dead, crazy gorgeous. So much so that I'm actually considering looking at you again..."

Meanwhile, Evelyn is at the house trying to support her daughter in her time of need, being brutally honest in the process:

After the John and Deborah have a weak "reconciliation", Flor arrives to take Cristina, and after a tearful farewell, Cristina asks her mother if she could stay with the Claskys longer. Flor tells Cristina no, and continues to say that she cannot go to the private school anymore. In turn; Cristina becomes angry with her mother and yells at her on the way to the bus stop. After a moment of silence, Flor tearfully asks Cristina a question that will define the rest of her life: Does she really want to become someone very different from her mother?

Cristina responds by silently boarding the bus with her mother, initially sits away from Flor, then comes close to her mother again and ends up embracing her for the duration of their ride. As this scene plays, Cristina as an adult narrates, acknowledging that “all she is today” rests on the simple fact that she is her mother’s daughter.

Cast

Adam Richard Sandler (born September 9, 1966) is an American comedian, actor, musician, screenwriter, and film producer. ... TÃ©a Leoni (born February 25, 1966) is an American actress. ... Paz Vega (born Paz Campos Trigo January 2, 1976) is a Spanish actress. ... Cloris Leachman (born April 30, 1926) is an Academy Award-, nine-time Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning American actress of stage, film and television. ... Shelbie Bruce (born 12 November 1992 in Brownsville, Texas) is an American actress best known for her role in the film Spanglish. ... Sarah Steele (born September 16, 1988) is an American actress who got her first break into the film industry by beating thousands of young hopeful females for the role of Bernice in the 2004 film, Spanglish. ... Cecilia SuÃ¡rez (born November 22, 1971 in Tampico, Tamaulipas) is a Mexican actress who has played roles in a number of mostly Spanish language films and television series since 1997. ... Aimee Garcia (born November 28, 1978 in Chicago, Illinois, USA) is an American actress. ...

Awards

Premio Juventud

Golden Globe Award

The Golden Globe Award The Golden Globe Awards are American awards for motion pictures and television programs, given out each year during a formal dinner. ... For the main article see Golden Globe Awards. ... Hans Florian Zimmer (born September 12, 1957) is an Academy Award, Grammy, and Golden Globe award-winning film score composer from Germany. ...

Box Office

This film grossed $55,041,367 worldwide, significantly less than the $80 million production budget.

External links

For the in-memory database management system, see In-memory database. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... James L. Brooks (born May 9, 1940) is a three-time Academy Award, nineteen-time Emmy and Golden Globe-winning American producer, writer, and film director. ... For the Drawn Together episode, see Terms of Endearment (Drawn Together episode). ... Broadcast News is a 1987 romantic comedy about a brilliant yet prickly reporter (Albert Brooks), his charming but admittedly far less seasoned rival (William Hurt), and their virtuoso producer (Holly Hunter), who has daily emotional breakdowns. ... Ill Do Anything is a 1994 film, starring Nick Nolte and Albert Brooks. ... As Good as It Gets is a 1997 film which tells the story of an obsessive-compulsive, cantankerous, and homophobic writer named Melvin Udall (Jack Nicholson) who, because of his anxiety disorder, lives in a world that has shrunk to about the size of his apartment and the books he...

Contents

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