Let me start with this: I am not a movie critic. I have no talent at it. Probably don’t watch enough movies anyway.
But–you knew there was a but coming…
Some related statements of fact first: I love Frederica Mathewes-Green’s writing. I love her movie reviews. (Read her Incredibles review, for instance, if you haven’t.)
Back to the but part….
Yes, I see what she is saying in her review of Spanglish. But…ok, first off, I probably go for the random sitcom stuff Frederica complains about. Maybe I have ADD. Maybe I just need it on a Friday night. (Remember, I’m not a critic, just a consumer here.)
And, I also thought Opera Man was the funniest skit in like the history of comedy at the time Adam Sandler was doing it on SNL (I maybe still do, sorta)…so there’s where I’m coming from.
I saw a Spanglish preview tonight and thought it was a great movie. Not like Gone with the Wind great or Zulu great or whatever classic is yours to have and to hold. But a decent, sweet, heartwarming—and funny movie.
There were some great lines and a great general attitude—as Frederica points out in her review—about responsibility. My favorite line comes when Adam Sandler and newcomer Paz Vega are at a near-no-turning-back point and Vega’s character says that when you have children there are some mistakes you just can’t make. Family. Responsibility. Parental love. The friendship between the Sandler and Vega characters was so real and, frankly (and now I get patronizing? Sorry.) useful I think for a NY artsy audience, which I happened to be mixed in with tonight. The blues can afford to be exposed to 90 minutes of those messages in a funny, breezy kinda way.
Some conversations coming out of the theater were “That was, uh, different. Like a family movie.” You sensed a little air of not getting it. (But I figure they cracked up enough they won’t trash it.) So, in other words, I loved it.