This film is told through the eyes of Christina as she tries to get into Princeton and she talks about how family is the most important thing that someone can have. She tells the college about when she and her mother Flor (Paz Vega) came to the United States to work for John Clasky (Adam Sandler) and his wife Deborah Clasky (Téa Leoni).
Flor could speak no English, so she relied on Christina to translate, and to say that John and Deborah were unhappy is to put it mildly. They were miserable. Over the summer, the family moved to the beach house, and now used to the services of Flor, Deborah insisted that she come along, and that meant that Christina needed to come too.
However, Flor was trying to help Christina to see that things weren't always like they were at the Clasky household, and this development wasn't helping in that regard, because once at the summer house, Deborah took Christina under her wing as if she was her own daughter - but Flor did the same with Bernice, the Clasky's daughter, making such contributions as adjusting the buttons on her dress so she wouldn't notice her size - or she would think less of it, and things of that nature.
When the summer ended, and Christina wanted to go to the new school, Flor objected, but the Clasky's made it happen, and moving back to the regular house, everything got worse, until the point where she had to make a decision for herself and for Christina, and that's when they left before anything would happen that she may regret.
The movie actually isn't bad, and there is some good dialogue - notably from mother Evelyn (Cloris Leachman), who has some priceless pieces, and comes through in the end with some advice to Deborah to help things work out. But the whole thing is about three times too long and it just goes on and on and on, and that's where it fails me.
The acting jobs are good, and the writing is good. It just doesn't keep the interest for the whole length of the movie, perhaps because it is so long.
Rated PG-13 for some sexual content and brief language.
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