Spanglish

You know how there are films that you just never get round to watching, even though you really want to? I finally caught Spanglish on RTE last night - what a great, sweet, film! I love domestic, small scale films which stay in one place and focus on people, their relationships and interactions, and motivations.

I really like Adam Sandler in that sort of role, I find him immensely sympathetic - especially Flor's comment that being used to macho Latino men, she finds him like a Mexican woman and doesn't know how to deal with it!

I'm also quite impressed with the ending and the way the film refuses to descend into wish fiulfilment.

However, I am worried by the characters in it. It's not a big jump to see myself as the neurotic, damaged wife, forcing everyone around her to deal with her moods and foibles all the time, overdramatising everything and ultimately being horribly near sighted and selfish in her desperate quest for a happiness she should already appreciate.

And I'm sure my husband could relate to himself a the creative and put upon sweetie Sandler, just trying to do his best and being endlessly patient, while being taken for granted.

But in truth, I'm not that bad, and he's not that good, really. Beyond that, I'm not sure.

there's a thread on Rollercoaster at the moment that a husband started, in backlash to all the complaining about partners that goes on - about the reasons why he loves his wife. Lots of women have joined in with very touching testaments to the men in their life, it's very moving.

But I'm taking heart from one woman, possibly on another thread, who;s at the end of her pregnancy and says she can't even look at her husband at the moment, she feels so negatively towards him! I got the impression she can say this so casually because she knows it's hormonal, and it will pass.

I'm not falling into the trap of 'it will all be alright when the baby's here' because I know from experience exactly how it will be! But I am looking forward to a sense of things being back to normal, whatever that normal may become, with two kids instead of one...