What a charmer, what a provocative delight! Spanglish is a romantic comedy about family, parenting, language, culture, mental illness and the temptations that lead people astray.

That is a lot for a romantic comedy to embrace, but Spanglish can do it because the writer-director is the smart, sensitive veteran James L. Brooks of Terms Of Endearment, Broadcast News and As Good As It Gets fame.

The new film tells how a dad (Adam Sandler) tries to keep his fractured family from disintegrating when his wife (Tea Leoni) succumbs to her extreme neurotic impulses, when his tough-love mother-in-law (Cloris Leachman) indulges in her alcoholism, and when his plump daughter (Sarah Steele) is crushed by her mother\'s mean disdain for her weight.

The situation gets even more complicated when the family\'s new Latina nanny and housekeeper (the gifted Spanish star Paz Vega) turns out to be a sexy angel of a woman. Sandler finds himself drawn to her while Leoni virtually adopts the nanny\'s precocious -- and thin -- daughter (Shelbie Bruce) as her own. That puts the two mothers in conflict.

Brooks knows how to put the right people in the right roles and bring out the best in them, Sandler in particular. With the non-cliched story in play, with the thoughtful dialogue and no need to exploit \"the dummy\" character that turned Sandler into a movie star, Brooks mines Sandler\'s true self.

In life, he is a warm, engaging human being. In Spanglish, he is an idealized father and heroic husband, despite what is going on at home and at work. Sandler plays a world-class chef who runs his own L.A. restaurant, which suddenly is \"plagued\" by a rave review from a leading food critic.   

Sandler\'s performance sits comfortably between what he does in his crass comedies and the brilliant edge-of-the-abyss work he did in Punch-Drunk Love. In Spanglish, he is appealing, even lovable, and he provides the context for the movie to work its overall charm. So don\'t be put off if you don\'t like his usual comedies, and teen fans shouldn\'t go if they expect just manic behaviour or the twang of a ukulele.

The rest of the cast is good, from the adults through to the children. Special mention goes to Leoni for her courage in looking, sounding and being awful on screen (because that\'s what the role calls for), and of the 78-year-old Leachman, for her blunt sarcasm and amusing moments of sheer insanity.

This movie means something -- and that\'s good.

(This film is rated PG)