Maybe we have gotten too used to happy endings. James Brooks seems to thrive on producing films about flawed characters and with bittersweet endings, at best. Broadcast News and Terms of Endearment are two examples that come to mind. Spanglish is a third. I believe the characters are all going to need therapy at some point in their lives if they haven’t already entered it. But they were all genuine in their own imperfect ways: Tea Leoni in how she was so adamantly right about everything and so totally oblivious to the impact she had on people around her and indeed oblivious to any true thing about anyone around her and most especially about those with whom she should be most intimate; Paz Vega with her intense determination to do the best for her daughter that would only permit her to comprehend a “best” that fit into her narrow definition of the concept; Adam Sandler as a weak and dominated man who so wanted to be fierce but who could not bring himself to pay the price for his ferocity until it was already too late. They are all flawed and imperfect people, but that doesn’t make them any less worth watching. Perhaps it only makes them a little too close to home for it to be completely comfortable watching them.