Flor Moreno is a poor, Mexican single mother who is hired as the housekeeper for a rich American family in Los Angeles: John and Deborah Clasky, their kids Bernice and Georgie, and Deborah';;s alcoholic mother Evelyn Wright. A woman and her daughter emigrate from Mexico for a better life in America, where they start working for a family where the patriarch is a newly celebrated chef with an insecure wife.
Vega radiates effortless strength and charm in her first Hollywood role, and Sandler proves to be a gratifyingly unpredictable leading man, self-effacing one moment and hilariously emphatic the other.
Long Island Press
March 30, 2007
The film racks up points for stressing in eloquent ways the importance of one's own roots, even when dwarfed or demeaned by the lure of the dominant, more affluent culture.
ComingSoon.net
March 30, 2011
Spanglish is a heartfelt, funny, sad, human story about what people want and what they should do; about culture's colliding and maintaining their individuality; and about what parents do for their children.
This is Hollywood liberal humanism as muted join-the-dots melodrama, all carefully calculated colouring, broad outlines, and no room for fruitful digression.
Brooks, fumbling around with too many characters and too many issues, can't find the heart of the story or give heart to the part of it he chose to focus on.
Seattle Times
December 21, 2004
The film too often seems to be talking down, to its subjects and to its audience.
Common Sense Media
December 28, 2010
Mixed messages wrapped in stale stereotypes.
Newsweek
November 01, 2007
There are signs that a lot has been cut, and in trimming his film Brooks may have squeezed too tight: his movie needs breathing space.
