Spanglish

(Herald rating: * * *)

WARNING: Adam Sandler is acting again. After his remarkable turn in Punch-Drunk Love, another acclaimed director - James L. Brooks, former regular Oscar contender with the likes of Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News and As Good as It Gets - has taken a punt on the king of juvenile comedy.

The result - while hardly among Brooks' best work and feeling at times like an over-stretched sitcom pilot - is a charmer. Brooks delivers an endearing culture-clash comedy about Mexican housekeeper Flor (Spaniard Vega) employed by the well-to-do Claskys of Beverly Hills, a family bordering on the dysfunctional mainly because of the well-meaning but neurotic wife and mother of the clan, Deborah Clasky (Leoni in hysterical form). She's married to the affable John (Sandler) a celebrated but unstressed chef.

The story is told through the eyes of Flor's teenage daughter, Cristina (Bruce), who narrates the film in flashback, telling how she and her single mum came to be in LA. After being taken on as a maid, Flor, despite having no English, becomes part of the family. Problems start when Deborah tries to direct her smothering intentions towards Cristina.

John and Flor find themselves attracted but feel too responsible to really act on that desire.

Sandler is a fine straight guy and creates quite a chemistry opposite Vega, who in her first Hollywood role is both radiant and a fiery ball of protective maternal instinct. The film takes too long to cover familiar ground, but it's an appealing comedy that will send Sandler devotees screaming from the cinema.

CAST: Adam Sandler, Paz Vega, Tea Leoni, Cloris Leachman, Shelbie Bruce
DIRECTOR: James L. Brooks
RATING: M (low-level offensive language)
RUNNING TIME: 131 mins
SCREENING: Village, Hoyts, Berkeley cinemas from Thursday