So Spanglish?…

Never mind it’s disjointed scenes, it’s fleeting attempts at humour, it’s broken characters, it’s very few flashes of brilliant acting.

What do I remember?

Tea Leone’s role, as a wife and mom.
Some would look at her character and judge her immediately, superficially, and say she’s a monster, horrible control freak, viscious beast, pathetic loser.

I saw someone familiar.

I saw someone clinging to the sides of the sanity boat.

Clearly the veneer is worn down, exposing shards of flimsy particleboard barely able to hold in the murky, leaking interior.

I saw someone falling into the depths of fear, despair and self-loathing. Someone so broken and hurt they’d become desperate, selective, self-absorbed, unable to cope with everyday tasks, unable to respond sincerely to kindness.

Someone slipping from the clutches of a tentative reality so quickly, falling into every trap life offers the falling.

But the particle board, though ragged, still stuck to the veneer in enough places to present a solid boat, albeit superficially.

Tea played so perfectly the break down of a Type A. Her character fell apart…perfectly. All up front. She didn’t dig herself into a hole to hide, we weren’t spared every sick attempt she took to feel better and sane, which only worked to further alienate her from her family. We get to see the train wreck, we’re even expected to cheer it on.

But I ached for her character. We can end up there all too easily.