What an utter disappointment. From James L. Brooks, the man who made "Terms of Endearment", "Broadcast News", "As Good As It Gets" and of course, "The Mary Tyler Moore Show", comes a dramedy that has two separate agendas that the filmmaker seems intent on integrating regardless of the resulting contrivances. The first is to show the plight of Mexican immigrants in their effort to realize economic betterment while concurrently maintaining their cultural identity. This part is worthy of screen treatment. The second is to show the underbelly of the liberal mindset and the seemingly rampant dysfunctional state of the family unit among the L.A. social elite. This part has been seriously misjudged.<br /><br />Let me tackle the problematic second part first. In an overly sincere mode, Adam Sandler portrays John Clasky, the hottest chef in a city where culinary celebrities are at the top of the heap. His professional life seems to be modeled after master chef Thomas Keller, who was exalted in the same way by food critics when he opened his "French Laundry" restaurant in Yountville (which is indeed fantastic). In fact, Keller appears in a pertinent extra on the making of the ideal late night sandwich, which includes the recipe as well. The challenge in accepting Sandler's performance is not his attempt to be taken seriously as Oscar-bait, but rather his apparently limited ability to convey the complexity underneath what seems to be the perfect man - understanding, compassionate (though too passive at key moments of conflict), a loving father. At this stage in his career, especially with his idiosyncratic tics (slurring his words, constant stooping, stumbling about), Sandler is simply not yet substantive enough an actor to pull off such a multi-dimensional role.<br /><br />But the real problem is the way Brooks conceives John's wife Deborah as a character. Téa Leoni has the unfortunate task of playing the aerobicized fishwife from hell, a former go-getter who was downsized out of her career as a commercial designer. Now Deborah is a horrifying mother who chokes the self-esteem out of her daughter (as much as it is inferred her mother did to her) and shamelessly pilfers the affections of her maid's daughter. She's a therapy-driven narcissist whose competitive impulses get in the way of any good intentions, and she's always apologizing for her actions, which Brooks hopes will endear her to us. It just doesn't work because Leoni, despite her obvious talent and beauty, is not likable enough for us to care - Deborah is among the most exhausting, disreputable characters I have seen in a movie in ages (and that includes Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling in the documentary, "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room"). The combination of Sandler and Leoni nearly torpedoes the movie completely.<br /><br />This leaves us with the movie's first agenda item, the fearful assimilation of immigrant Latinos. Brooks has found a luminous actress in Paz Vega, a Penelope Cruz look-alike (imagine the Almodóvar possibilities in their joint casting), as Flor, the woman who escapes Mexico with her daughter to eventually find work as the Clasky maid. Vega injects a nice quality into Flor that is at once unselfish and proud, as Flor exhibits true backbone to her employers. The character, however, is idealized at the expense of presenting a figure as complex as the Claskys, especially as the story veers into the inevitable though not terribly credible attraction that develops between Flor and John. In fact, her innate nobility provides the framework for the story as it is essentially a flashback described by her daughter Cristina in what must have been the world's longest application essay to Princeton. In the end, we are expected to believe that Flor is too virtuous to have any personal desires, though there is still something resolutely selfish about pulling her daughter out of the scholarship-funded private school.<br /><br />Shelbie Bruce is excellent as the adolescent Cristina, especially as she cross-translates John's and Flor's argument and in a moment of unfiltered anger near the end. Sarah Steele is equally fine as the Clasky's overweight daughter Bernie, alternating between smart-mouth comments and palpable sadness. And finally in a good role again, Cloris Leachman displays her considerable skill in playing Deborah's alcoholic though self-aware mother, Evelyn, who tosses the best line to her daughter: "Your low self-esteem is simple common sense, dear." I only wish her character was fleshed out more to provide a better counterbalance to her awful daughter. Brooks should be commended for his high-mindedness here but docked for his hubris in having us accept these characters. The DVD has lots of extras, including enthusiastic audio commentary from Brooks with his editors Richard Marks and Tia Nolan and the addition of twelve deleted scenes again with the same trio providing comments. There is the brief Keller clip I mentioned, as well as an HBO First Look featurette that actually got me more excited about the movie than watching the movie itself.