JAMES L Brooks has a way of making you warm to objectionable people - he gave us Homer Simpson and Melvin Udall (Jack Nicholson in As Good As It Gets).

But not even he can save Deborah Clasky (Tea Leoni), the neurotic, selfish, narrow-minded, self-obsessed wife of celebrated chef John (Adam Sandler) in Spanglish.

It is a shame because, if he had managed to coax a more rounded, sympathetic performance from Leoni, Spanglish would be a far better movie than it is.

The story revolves around mother and daughter Flor (Paz Vega) and Cristina (Shelbie Bruce) Moreno, who abandon their home in Mexico in search of a better life in Los Angeles.

Flor takes a job as housekeeper for the Claskys - John and Deborah, their kids Bernice and Georgie and Deborah's boozy mother Evelyn (Cloris Leachman).

There she can witness the Claskys' marriage splinter as Deborah is hell-bent on imposing her will not only on poor, kindly, wimpy John, but also her anxiety-ridden daughter, while avoiding all serious conversation with her mother.

Brooks' depiction of everyday dysfunction in domestic America cuts across all boundaries of class, colour and creed.

Flor and Cristina are not without issues of their own - the more so as Cristina is accepted into the household.

And the film scores well until we get to the breakdown when one forbidden romance almost precipitates another and events follow the expected path.

Sandler is mercifully subdued, hinting at a rich future in more dramatic roles, while Vega more than makes the most of her part.

Leoni is too one-dimensional, but Leachman is brilliant and, although Brooks dispenses with the pat happy-ever-after, some more development of her character would have given the film a more complex, but ultimately more complete, view of family life.