In theaters

SPANGLISH, written and directed by James L. Brooks, 110 minutes, rated PG-13.

Midway through the new James L. Brooks movie, “Spanglish,” it occurred to me how little oxygen there is in the movie. Nobody breathes here – they just exhale, scream, blather and sigh. And then they do it again. And then they do it again.

You can hardly blame them. Brooks obviously conceived, wrote and directed this phony dud with his head stuck in a cloud of ether, which likely accounts for the reason his film is such a dizzying mess and why his characters behave as stupidly as they do.

Take, for instance, Deborah Clasky, who is played here by Tea Leoni with the sort of hysterical, high-pitched shrill that suggests somebody here forgot their meds.

Deborah is one of the most irritating, isolating characters to hit theaters this year. Moody, mean and underhanded, she’s a selfish, castrating witch on a bender. With her relentless drive, she ridicules her daughter Bernice (Sarah Steele) for being overweight; she patronizes her husband, John (Adam Sandler), for the sheer hell of it; and she has snubbed her mother, Evelyn (Cloris Leachman), straight into alcoholism.

As a result, she makes for one miserable time at the movies.

Deborah’s whole being is focused solely on her own needs, and while her overbearing presence isn’t the only reason the movie fails, each time she enters the screen with her tantrums, her tears, her nasty scowl and her snotty nose, the movie sinks lower into a pit from which it can’t recover.

“Spanglish” is being sold as the story of a proud Mexican woman named Flor (Paz Vega), who comes illegally to the States with her daughter Cristina (Shelbie Bruce) and eventually finds work cleaning for the wealthy Claskys. Flor doesn’t speak English, but Cristina does, and between them, they survive well enough until Deborah starts to meddle.

That’s the real story we get. Deborah favors Cristina more than her own daughter – the sweet, likable Bernice – for reasons that are clear to everyone. Cristina is slim, smart and conventionally pretty – the trophy child Deborah always wanted – and, my, doesn’t Deborah make a mess of things as her stronghold over Cristina tightens.

Toss into this mix a forced, passionless flirtation between John and Flor, which generates all the heat of a lima bean, and some sage observations about life from mother Evelyn, who has seen her share of worms at the bottom of a tequila bottle, and what you get isn’t Spanglish. It’s Manglish.

How a rich, successful, privileged white guy like Brooks (“Broadcast News,” “As Good as It Gets”) thought he could tell a story about what it’s like to be an illegal Mexican immigrant fighting the establishment to make a better life for herself and her child isn’t beyond comprehension. It’s pure ego.

The one thing he does right here is the casting of Leachman, who is so good as Evelyn, so calm amid the ongoing clash of personalities, that she must be the reason the film is currently be pushed for awards consideration. In a better movie, Leachman might have had a shot for one of the supporting awards. But in this movie, which will turn off too many, her chances are as slim as Leoni’s high-strung performance.

Grade: D

On video and DVD

“ANCHORMAN: THE LEGEND OF RON BURGUNDY,” directed by Adam McKay, written by Will Ferrell and McKay, 91 minutes, rated PG-13.

“Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy” tackles local television news anchors and their newscasts – two easy targets to skewer, so skewering ensues. But not unlike “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” or “Murphy Brown,” the movie is broad and harmless, mining more truth from its subject than some in the biz will want to admit.

As directed by Adam McKay from a script he co-wrote with star Will Ferrell, the film is 91 minutes of good-natured hair-pulling, which is especially cheeky since the group getting its hair pulled would rather not have theirs touched, thank you very much.

Set in the early 1970s, the film stars Ferrell as Ron Burgundy, the enormously popular, hirsute television anchor for San Diego’s Channel 4 who loves his scotch and his lady friends almost as much as he loves being No. 1 in the ratings.

Burgundy is a big local star and he knows it. He’s the man, the one to watch, the “handsome beast” people trust at the end of the day to give them the news. Sure he’s an idiot, but people like his macho bluster and they especially like the way he ends each newscast: “Stay classy, San Diego.”

When station manager Ed Harken (Fred Willard) hires reporter Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate) to add diversity to the newsroom, chauvinist Ron is forced to admit he might have met his match in a woman. Predictably, that doesn’t sit well with him, and Ron decides to fight back with the help of his bumbling news team – closeted gay sportscaster Champ Kind (David Koechner), dim-witted weatherman Brick Tamland (Steve Carell), and investigative reporter Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd).

An element of surprise runs throughout the movie that gives it the energy of stand-up comedy. The film looks dumb, but it’s deceptively smart, with thought behind the jokes, life to the performances.

Several unexpected cameos flip it on its side, particularly when the competing local affiliates come together to settle old grudges and heal bruised egos over a bloody brawl. With the characters wielding instruments of death in an effort to silence their competition, the scene proves the most honest hallucination to hit the movies this year.

Grade: B+

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays and Fridays in Style, 5:30 p.m. Thursdays on WLBZ 2 Bangor and WCSH 6 Portland, and are archived at RottenTomatoes.com. He may be reached at BDNFilm1@aol.com.

THE VIDEO-DVD CORNER

Renting a video or a DVD? NEWS film critic Christopher Smith can help. Below are his grades of recent releases in video stores. Those in bold print are new to video stores this week.

A Home at the End of the World – B+

Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy – B+

The Bourne Supremacy – B

The Chronicles of Riddick – C-

The Clearing – C+

Collateral – B+

Dawn of the Dead – A-

The Day After Tomorrow-B

De-Lovely – B

Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story – B

Elf – B+

Ella Enchanted – B

Envy – D

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – A-

Fahrenheit 9/11 – A-

Fog of War – A

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – A-

Hero – B+

I, Robot – B+

Kill Bill, Vol. 2 – B

King Arthur – B

The Manchurian Candidate – B+

Man on Fire – B

Mean Girls – B+

Napoleon Dynamite – B+

Open Water – A-

Raising Helen – C+

Shaun of the Dead – B+

Shrek 2 – B

Spider-Man 2 – A

The Stepford Wives – C

Soul Plane – D

Super-Size Me – C-

The Terminal – D

The Triplets of Belleville – A