Login Video Help for Logging In   E-mail Password Video Help for finding your Password 
illustrationssermon buildersmediapreaching skills
help & info
 search 



• Browse Illustrations 
• Lectionary 

ILLUSTRATION
"Spanglish": Good Common Sense
Printer view
Topics: Admonition; Adultery; Confrontation; Conscience; Conviction; Counsel; Guilt; Human condition; Immorality; Mistakes; Morality; Rebuke; Self-condemnation; Self-image; Sin; Sin, conviction of; Truth
Filters: Marriage & Sex; Movies & TV; Pop Culture; Stories; Women
References: 2 Samuel 12:1-15, Romans 2:15, 2 Corinthians 5:1-5
Tone: Neutral/Mixed

In Spanglish, Deborah Clasky (Tea Leoni) is the neurotic wife of John Clasky (Adam Sandler), a simple and carefree man who has become a highly acclaimed chef. Deborah is self-absorbed and small-minded, a control freak who blames everyone but herself for her problems. Her selfish patterns have led her into an affair. Evelyn (Cloris Leachman), Deborah’s mother, decides to step in.

Late one evening as Deborah gets into her SUV to slip away for a rendezvous, Evelyn comes out of the bushes where she had been waiting. Running up to the vehicle, Evelyn sticks her head in the rolled-down window, catching Deborah by surprise, and asks if she can “say just one thing.”

“Yes, Mother, one thing,” Deborah says with annoyance.

“Deborah, you are going to lose your husband if you don’t stop what you are doing. And you will never find someone as good. There will only be men who you know are cheap and shallow and have no real warmth in their souls. You may have gotten by on those surfaces once, but now you have been spoiled by a good man.”

With fire in her eyes, Evelyn gruffly grabs Deborah’s shoulder and continues. “If you do not act quickly, you will soon cement an awful fate for yourself, a life with no hope of repair which has already begun to turn desperate…” she pauses, “and dumb.”

Deborah is stunned. Then Evelyn smiles widely, her tone changes to a grandmotherly sweetness, as if she had just asked her daughter to run to the grocery rather than told her that her life was in jeopardy. “That’s it,” she says, patting the side of the car. “Drive carefully.”

As Evelyn walks away, Deborah yells, “Well, you’ve done it again, Mother … made me hate myself … one of the things I can count on.”

Evelyn turns around and says matter-of-factly, “Honey, lately, your low self-esteem is just good common sense.”

Elapsed Time: 01:29:17 to 01:31:07 (DVD scene 20)

Content: Rated PG-13 for some sexual content and language

 user ratings
Average Rating:  by 1 member. (Members, please login to rate this item.)


Sign up for a membership:

Monthly
Yearly



Free Newsletters
Preaching Connection
(weekly)  
Leadership Weekly  
Faith Visuals
(weekly)  

RSS Feeds  
Illustrations
Sermon Builders
Media
Preaching Skills

Hot Topics
Politics & Government
Back to School

August 31, 2008
Proper 17 (22)
Exodus 3:1-15
Psalm 105:1-6
Psalm 105:23-26
Psalm 105:45
Jeremiah 15:15-21
Psalm 26:1-8
Romans 12:9-21
Matthew 16:21-28


The Practical Journal for Church Leaders

Subscribe to Leadership journal

PT Recommends