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.
Flor Moreno, an impecunious single mother of one, emigrates to Los Angeles from Mexico in high hopes of creating a better life for her twelve-year-old daughter, Cristina. However, after landing a job as a housekeeper for the laid-back gourmet chef, John Clasky, and his well-to-do family, Flor will find herself up against a daunting language barrier, and Deborah, John's troubled wife. Little by little, as Flor struggles to start afresh, and of course, learn English, an inevitable cultural collision is at hand; moreover, a burgeoning romantic affection starts to take over. Will John and Flor ever bridge the linguistic divide?Written by
Nick Riganas
The tape that Flor uses to learn English is a real tape. See more »
Goofs
When Flor is going up the stairs in the summer house after discussing with John with Cristina's help, and stops to continue talking to John, her hair changes from one shot to another. See more »
Quotes
[first lines]
Boy's Voice:
[voiceover to scene of people reviewing applications]
To Dean of Admission, Princeton University. The most influential person in my life...
Girl's Voice:
...is Mother Teresa, whose example helped me overcome the arrogance which threatened after my 1600 SAT score in National Merit Scholarship
Girl's Voice #2:
...most influential person taught me the most important word I've ever learned; Aloha, which I...
Narrator:
To the Dean of Admission, Princeton University, from Cristina Moreno. Most influential person, my Mother, No ...
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Crazy Credits
No actors were mistreated in the making of this film. See more »
Charlie's Angels Theme
Written by Jack Elliott and Allyn Ferguson
Courtesy of Columbia Pictures, a division of Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. See more »
Gregory Nava's "El Norte" was a memorable journey into the Latino experience in white wealthy country. That masterpiece had a heartbreaking scene between the Latino maid and a washing machine. "Spanglish" merely hints to a similar moment between the Latino maid and a coffee machine. The "merely hinting" is at the heart of this painful comedy of manners. This is the journey of an observer not of someone who actually lived it. As a consequence he treats his own with an iron hand and the others with a romantic, heroic, fairy taleish sort of slant. Putting aside the potential seriousness of the story, the film is a moving, entertainment fantasy in the land of opulence and guilt. The borders here are not geographic but personal, the aliens are the natives. They become illegal in their own existence and step all over their own lives without noticing, trying to care, trying to be the best they can possibly be but without points of reference or enough substance for their acts to have any kind of real meaning. Tea Leoni gives a performance of such fearlessness that sometimes you feel she may jump out of the screen. Cloris Leachman is great as an alcoholic wise woman who doesn't want to be judged. Paz Vega represents the ideal Latin heroine in a wealthy American's story. She is beautiful and powerful and utterly unlikely. Adam Sandler is Adam Sandler and seems to stand passively between the blonder than blond world of his wife and the exotic gorgeousness world of his maid. I would like to know what happened to Paz and her daughter after leaving behind the chances to be or become like everyone else in the white wealthy country of make believe, or is that too much to ask.
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Gregory Nava's "El Norte" was a memorable journey into the Latino experience in white wealthy country. That masterpiece had a heartbreaking scene between the Latino maid and a washing machine. "Spanglish" merely hints to a similar moment between the Latino maid and a coffee machine. The "merely hinting" is at the heart of this painful comedy of manners. This is the journey of an observer not of someone who actually lived it. As a consequence he treats his own with an iron hand and the others with a romantic, heroic, fairy taleish sort of slant. Putting aside the potential seriousness of the story, the film is a moving, entertainment fantasy in the land of opulence and guilt. The borders here are not geographic but personal, the aliens are the natives. They become illegal in their own existence and step all over their own lives without noticing, trying to care, trying to be the best they can possibly be but without points of reference or enough substance for their acts to have any kind of real meaning. Tea Leoni gives a performance of such fearlessness that sometimes you feel she may jump out of the screen. Cloris Leachman is great as an alcoholic wise woman who doesn't want to be judged. Paz Vega represents the ideal Latin heroine in a wealthy American's story. She is beautiful and powerful and utterly unlikely. Adam Sandler is Adam Sandler and seems to stand passively between the blonder than blond world of his wife and the exotic gorgeousness world of his maid. I would like to know what happened to Paz and her daughter after leaving behind the chances to be or become like everyone else in the white wealthy country of make believe, or is that too much to ask.