User reviews

There's only one reason why I don't like this movie right now. Because I have a splitting headache from being emotionally drained!

IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE has been the top of my list for all time favorite movies, now I AM SAM has moved in right next to it.

I'm not saying that you have to have kids to understand the true meaning behind this movie, but I must say it certainly helps. I told my wife on the way back home from the movie that she was sooo stuck with me. She knew what I was referring to; our 6 month old little girl and our 5 year old little girl. I guess I'm just a good ole fashion softy. I came home and gave my 5 year old the biggest hug of her life and the tears just started flowing. I felt I had been impatient with her lately and just needed to let her know how much her daddy loves her.

I know this isn't a true rating of a movie. I'm not describing certain scenes that I thought were great or needed improving, I just wanted to express how it made me feel. And though I have a pounding head right now, I feel like I'm the luckiest dad in the world!

In an eye opening performance, Sean Penn plays mentally challenged Sam. It was the 2001 Academy Awards when I began to doubt the Oscars because Sean Penn was robbed of the Best Actor category. I really believed at the time, that Sean Penn was mentally challenged. He was way more deserving of the award than Denzel.

This is one film that can tug your heart strings and have your eyes flooded with tears. It's powered by the performances of Sean Penn, Michelle Pfeiffer and Dakota Fanning. Dakota has an innate ability to use her big beautiful eyes to induce crying. Michelle can steal a moment from Sean in any scene with her beautifully delivered words.

The story of fighting for custody of his daughter is one for all ages and it's a tragic story to be told but can captivate any audience and especially all mothers and fathers out there. When you finish watching, you'll have red eyes from wiping away those tears. You'll also be in a mood to start watching more movies containing Sean Penn.

If you've never seen a Sean Penn film before this, you'll believe that he is truly handicapped. Sean Penn's commitment to this role is accounted for six months of research on mentally challenged people. I'm not knocking Denzel Washington as an actor, as he's supremely talented. But Sean Penn has an uncanny ability to make you believe he is not playing a character of Sam, but is the character of Sam.

The character of Sam, is not inspiring because he is handicapped. It's due to how loving he is and how much fighting he does to get his daughter back and make her happy that makes Sam inspiring. Kids can watch this movie, and parents will enjoy it most of all. It's not a movie that should be missed by anyone. There's no reason to dislike, I Am Sam.

A Truly wonderful film that left you thinking and feeling for hours after walking out of the cinema.

Michelle Pfeiffer is exact in her portrayal of the smart, rich, no-nonsense lawyer who realises how empty her luxurious and successful life is. As always she delivers an outstanding performance and reminds us of just how excellent and beautiful an actress she is.

Sean Penn is so believable that you forget that he doesn't actually have anything wrong with him...he captures every emotion perfectly and instills all of that emotion in the audience. Penn is highly under rated in the world that is movies, as he shows with this Oscar potential performance.

The young actress who plays his daughter is amazingly mature in her acting, whilst always managing to capture the innocence of her youthfullness. On top of all that she is gorgeous. The combination of three excellent main actors combined with the supporting actors and the genuine theme and style of the film makes I am Sam an excellent and must see film. Truly Inspiring.

I Am Sam is a great movie that deals with marginalized people in our society and how they're treated. It's a very realistic portrayal. I watched it with my 13 year old daughter and it alternately made us cry, got us angry and caused us to laugh uncontrollably.

Sam is loved and respected by those who know him (Starbuck's patrons, IHOP Waitress, friends), taunted by those who have no regard for anyone different (Lucy's arrogant classmate and his equally arrogant father) and generally misunderstood by everyone else.

I especially liked the irony of the lawyer, who is an emotional train wreck, yet because she's an adult intellecutally, no one questions her ability as a parent. Sam on the other hand loves his daughter and it shows.

This movie is not for anyone looking for a "fun weekend rent". If you rent this, be prepared to have your values and your emotions challenged.

I know that title isn't very descriptive, but all I could say for awhile after watching I Am Sam was, "Wow!" Although that's a positive endorsement of the film--it's rare that a film has me basically speechless afterward (I usually suffer from logorrhea, which sounds close enough to diarrhea that you could call it (verbal) flatulence instead if you like)--it turned out to be quite a problem, because we went to dinner right afterward and I had to give a lecture. I believe I was served some kind of raw beef, and I have an exorbitant dry cleaning bill from the tomatoes and rotten eggs.

But I won't bill director/co-writer Jessie Nelson, because it's not her fault that her film is so powerful and so stunningly constructed that it made me monosyllabic. I can only blame myself for putting off watching her work for so long.

I Am Sam begins with Sam Dawson (Sean Penn) at his job. He lives in Santa Monica and works at Starbucks. We can see that he's mentally retarded. He appears slightly autistic. Because of this, he's given only menial tasks to do. Suddenly, his boss tells him that he has to go. We see Sam running through the streets, catching buses and so on to end up at a hospital. A woman is in labor and it turns out that he's the father, but she wants nothing to do with him afterward--apparently, it was something like a one night stand. She abandons him with the baby. Aided by a quartet of developmentally disabled friends and his agoraphobic neighbor, Annie Cassell (Dianne Wiest), we see Sam doing his best to raise the girl, Lucy Diamond Dawson (eventually played by Dakota Fanning)--so named because Sam is a big Beatles fan. At least until he is "accidentally arrested". Government officials question his ability to raise his daughter, and I Am Sam becomes the tale of Sam's legal battle to retain custody of Lucy, aided by high profile lawyer Rita Harrison (Michelle Pfeiffer).

I Am Sam will likely make you say, "Wow!" afterward because it is a masterpiece on every artistic and technical level.

All of the major cast members give one of the best performances of their careers, and many of these actors have had a number of artistic triumphs on their résumés. Sean Penn is completely natural and believable as a developmentally disabled man. Two of the men playing his friends really were developmentally disabled, having been found at L.A. Goal, a non-profit agency dedicated to helping such people through a variety of programs, and it's next to impossible to tell them apart from the other actors. Nelson and her co-writer, Kristine Johnson, spent a lot of time at L.A. Goal doing research, as did Penn. Pfeiffer perfectly executes a complex character who has to undergo a number of far reaching transformations and even a breakdown of sorts. As for Fanning, I haven't seen her in a film yet where she didn't threaten to steal the whole thing from her senior, much more experienced colleagues, and during the filming of I Am Sam she was only 6 or 7. Wiest, Richard Schiff, Laura Dern and others also turn in very complex performances that convey characters with deep, multifaceted histories, despite their relatively little screen time.

Nelson approaches the film with a number of unusual artistic and technical angles that all work wonderfully. The cinematography is mostly hand-held work. Unlike similar attempts in films such as Lars Von Trier's Dogville (2003), the hand-held work never feels affected or intrusive here--it's completely "organic". The most common purpose of the unusual cinematography is to give the viewer almost a subjective sense of what it's like to be Sam, to experience the world in the way he does. Cinematographer Elliot Davis moves his camera in a way closely mirrored with Sean Penn's movements. There's an additional emotional symbolism. When Sam is feeling agitated, the camera-work is agitated. Likewise when Sam is confused, pensive, and so on. Davis shoots from a lot of unusual angles. All of them work.

Nelson also has the editing, lighting and production design match the aesthetic of the cinematography. The editing is sometimes very choppy, but always feels "natural", just right for conveying Sam's experience. Sometimes there are odd incongruencies between sound and image, or between temporal sequences. The lighting, camera angles and production design often make some elements appropriately fantastical. The production design and costuming match not only Sam's world, but other characters' worlds, as well. Not one aspect of the film seems to have gone by without close examination and artistic justification.

The music, which largely consists of Beatles tunes performed by other artists, fits the film perfectly. Sam and his friends are all a bit obsessed with the Beatles (and apparently, so were many L.A. Goal members when Nelson visited). The Beatles tunes exquisitely match the various moods of the film, and the lyrics often complement emotions and actions.

But even above all of that, I Am Sam tells a heart-wrenching story that's something of an exciting, emotional roller-coaster. There are many humorous scenes, often centered on Sam and his buddies going about the world with a kind of Winnie the Pooh-like wisdom that seems more honest and admirable than most of the film's "normal" folks. Of course, there are also many scenes that will require tissues for tears. And there's just about every emotion in between the two.

Finally, the film has a great message. Does parenting, or general personal worth, really hinge on intellectual ability and amassed knowledge? I don't think so. Parents who are very smart can have more than their share of flaws, as we see with Pfeiffer's character early on. Plenty of us had parents who were smart enough but couldn't help us with our geometry homework. Love may not be all you need, but it's definitely one of the major prerequisites.

I have to confess off the top that I am not and never have been a particular fan of Sean Penn. I have no specific criticism to make of him; as an actor he simply doesn't appeal to me. Because of that bias I approached this movie with low expectations. The story of a mentally handicapped man fighting for custody of his seven year old daughter sounded intriguing, but it starred Penn. But what a pleasant surprise this movie turned out to be!

Penn is actually very good in this role. He brings a realism to the character of Sam Dawson, and portrays him sensitively and with real emotion. In fact, I thought the only performance that was better than Penn's came not from Michelle Pfeiffer (who disappointed me a bit, actually) but rather from little Dakota Fanning as Sam's daughter Lucy. She seemed so natural in this role, and I would hope that we see more of her in the years to come. Pfeiffer, on the other hand, (as Sam's lawyer Rita Harrison) just didn't carry the role off that well, and even the courtroom scenes to me lacked the tension one would have expected from such an emotionally-laden issue.

The movie weakens in the last little bit, going for the sappy (and highly unrealistic) ending - unrealistic particularly in the way Lucy's foster mother (Laura Dern) ends up handling the situation.

Having said that, I still enjoyed this movie very much. It's raised my assessment of Sean Penn's acting abilities and I would recommend it to others and would watch it again.

7/10

And that's why we loved "The Beatles" because their songs were invitation to a better world, one different from our reality. But Jessie Nelson's "I Am Sam" approach the Beatles like a real Gospel of life.

This well-meaning drama is about the group's number-one fan: Sam, a Starbucks Coffee employee with the mind of a 7-year old child fighting for the custody of his daughter of the same age, needless to say that we're supposed to root for him. His lawyer played by a Michelle Pfeiffer, starts like your typical shallow, self-centered, publicity-seeking executive women who, learns in the process one thing or two about love. Love, that's the film's motto, the whole purpose of the film is to prove that one's ability to love is enough to raise a child.

I'm sorry but as a parent of a four-year old little girl, it's not true. The film mixes up two elements in a way that insults intelligence: loving and raising. One is a matter of the heart, it's something of universal value that transcends the barriers, but rising is a practical thing, requiring a decent amount of both mental and physical ability. It is such a painstaking occupation you can't deal with it alone, whether you're Sam, a blind woman or even two parents. But this movie wants to make us believe that love is the one and only requirement. The premise is fallacious from the start.

Critics pointed out that the film makes an effort to show a father capable of taking of her child despite his handicap. Actually, the film can't even afford to be manipulative, as it contradicts the very points it tries to make, some situations were so embarrassing that I started to question very early whether this film was serious or a joke? Starting with the birth, Lucy's mother doesn't even have a glimpse on her child and she leaves the hospital as if she had just thrown a used Kleenex on a trashcan. And Sam leaves the hospital with the baby in his arms!!!

People leave a hospital with a baby in a Moses' basket or in the mother's arms if they're going to a car or a cab. That sight of Sam with little Lucy in his arms, in the middle of a subway, exposing her to all the germs of the world and with no one being ever worried about it, it could look like a kidnapping after all, killed all the film's credibility. If the point was to show a capable father, well it's a fail. Later, he can't understand why his daughter is crying and needs the help of Annie, the benevolent next-door neighbor, to tell him that she needs to eat every two hours.

Didn't he know? Didn't he prepare her birth? Didn't he train from diaper-changing? Does this guy have any family? How much time did pass before Annie came? Before you ask too many questions, the film makes a convenient ellipse with the Beatles' music in the background (the musical leitmotif) Lucy grew up and turns out to be a bright little girl, played very well by Dakota Fanning. From this chronological leap, we've got to assume that nothing went wrong until she started to outsmart Sam, and refuses to learn anything to stay on his level.

You can tell the writers needed to make this as pivotal as possible; he's also arrested in a weird scene involving a prostitute, which raises a social worker's attention. Loretta Devine plays the 'bad guy' part while we're supposed to feel in comfort when Sam goes buy shoes to his little girl, with his friends also suffering from mental handicap, some played by actors. Not every girl has a mother but I know shopping and buying clothes is a girl or a woman thing. I refuse to believe that Sam doesn't know any woman who could go have a woman-to-woman moment with Lucy. Seeing little girl surrounded by a bunch of grown-up adults talking weird isn't heart-warming, it is downright creepy.

Or at least, that's what the directing applies, what's with all the weird camera short and hand-held filming (with some weird zooms), you can tell some parts want to make you 'aaw' well it's either embarrassing to watch or unintentionally funny. The performance of Sean Penn has been deemed as 'full retard' by "Tropic Thunder" and you can tell it's the kind of one-note approach that doesn't work in movies, especially since he's not always in the same level of smartness, he's capable of detecting hidden messages beneath the Beatles songs, but sometimes, he can't even handle a client in his Starbucks shop. His level of mental retard fluctuates according to the requirements of the plot.

The whole experience of "I Am Sam" feels like someone tried to make a film in the same vein than "Philadelphia" with the subplot involving the lawyer. But even Michelle Pfeiffer can't save this and I thought she was too miscast, she's just too 'beautiful" for that face; they made an effort to make her so appealing to the camera it was distracting. As for the message, well, we're supposed to believe that Sam is capable, because of the Power of Love.

I'm sorry but I agreed with the prosecutor and in the one scene where he asked Annie a valid question about Sam's capability to raise Lucy when she'll reach puberty. Annie eludes the answer and asks him if he would (as if the issue was gender) and instead of asking the question again, the prosecutor turns into a sort of villain who asks a sensitive question about Annie's personal background. She cries, she becomes the victim, and the question is left unanswered.

That's the film in a nutshell, too many good sentiments preventing the good questions to find answers while they're too obvious not to be seen.

I Am Sam is one of, if not the best, motion picture of all time.

I Am Sam is about a retarded man named Sam (Sean Penn) who has a mental capacity of a 7-year old. He works as a server at Starbucks, is obsessed with The Beatles, and loves IHOP. After he accidentally has a daughter (Dakota Fanning) with a homeless woman who he names after the song Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds. The woman leaves him, and Sam is left to care for Lucy by himself. However, when Lucy intentionally begins to hold back in school to prevent becoming smarter from her father, child protective services takes her away and Sam must fight to obtain custody. He befriends a lawyer, Rita (Michelle Pfeiffer) with a bad marriage and a son who she thinks hates her. Together, Sam and Rita fight for Lucy's custody in a heartwrenching roller coaster of tears, laughs, and the overwhelming power of human spirit.

This is all beside some of the most stunning performances I've ever seen in a film. Sean Penn is top of his game and gives an amazingly realistic performance as a disabled man without a single flaw. To this day it makes me furious he didn't win the Oscar. Dakota Fanning's premiere role is by far her greatest ever, and at only six years old opened the eyes of actresses who've been in the business for years and basically screamed into their faces "This is how acting is done." And Michelle Pfeiffer delivers a phenomenal, incredibly realistic performance that will absolutely take your breath away.

As the film progresses, you will find yourself laughing one minute, crying the next (you WILL cry no matter how mature or old you are, so make sure you have tissues), the next moment tapping your foot along to the familiar Beatles tunes found throughout the movie (even though they're covers) and the next moment simply staring at the screen not believing your eyes and ears at how emotionally powerful a film can be.

And after watching, you won't want to ever give the DVD back to Blockbuster. If you don't at least give this movie a chance, you will truly be missing out on one of the shiniest gems of modern cinema ever.

Sean Penn plays a mentally challenged man whose close relationship with his smart 7-year old daughter is threatened by the local legalese after an encounter with a prostitute (!) and is pursued in the courts. "I Am Sam" exists in an almost alternate reality: nobody talks the way normal people speak, and many of the situations are manipulated to be effective, yet bear no resemblance to real life. Penn's performance is occasionally agonizing, but he is also extremely sensitive, intentionally funny and sad; Dakota Fanning is likably wise-beyond-her-years as his little girl. All the performances are commendable, but the script is a tangled mass of ideas that either don't work or don't build momentum (the hooker episode is just a pretense to get us into court, and it's execrably staged). The arty presentation (with herky-jerky cinematography and colors that are either cartoon bright or steely blue) is another liability, but the finale is moving and Penn's energy nearly makes it all worthwhile. **1/2 from ****

If you're looking for a tear-jerking, emotion-provoking melodrama, this is your first on the list. I am Sam is a sensational dramatic piece that will leave you with tears to wipe. In the film, Sam Dawson (Sean Penn) is a mentally challenged single father who's left by, as what it seems, a one night stand homeless woman to raise his daughter Lucy(Dakota Fanning). Despite of being a mentally retarded person, Sam has a job working in a local Starbucks coffee store and has got friends with some what equal mental capacity. He's a sweet, good-natured, and loving father to Lucy that is equally attached to him.

Unfortunately, a sordid twist of fate takes place in their paradise, at Lucy's 7th birthday a social worker believes that Sam, having the mental capacity of a 7-year-old, can't raise his child that is outgrowing him. Lucy is taken to a foster care temporarily as her father, along with the help of his mentally challenged friends, tries to find a high-profile attorney that can help him get his child back.

After multiple attempts, Sam manages to appoint an attorney (Michelle Pfeiffer) who only takes the job at first as a dare. Rita Harrison (Michelle Pfeiffer) is a successful busy lawyer that comes home to a cheating man and a son who hates her, through the movie Sam and Rita develop a friendly relationship which is an eye-opening for Rita to value her family and be more involved in her son's life. Sam goes through a legal battle to retain custody of Lucy, aided by his mentally challenged friends, his agoraphobic neighbor Annie Cassell (Diana Wiest), and his high profile determined lawyer (Michelle Pfeiffer).

The film is enriched with major cast members that in turn give out one of their best performances in their career life. Most noticeably, Sean Penn who initially visited L.A. Goal, a center in Los Angeles for mentally handicapped persons as groundwork to his role. I was truly impressed with Sean Penn's performance on the set of I Am Sam and how well he managed his role and his dedication to it as he freely indulged in the character of Sam Dawson. For anyone who has Sean Penn as a favourite actor, it's a must watch as it is easily his one of many remarkable performance and the stepping stone of his career. As for Michelle Pfeiffer, I wouldn't expect any other actress to perform the role of Rita Harrison as beautifully good as Michelle did. It's a perfect fit to her character and she accurately embodied the character of Rita that possesses an exhausted ill-tempered work driven nature. Least but not last, the amazing Dakota Fanning did a remarkable role on the set, and by far one of her best performances as a child.

The movie is Beatles-themed as we first understand Sam's character as an impressive Beatles-knowledgeable person despite being retarded. He then names his child Lucy Diamond inspired from the Beatles song "Lucy in the Diamond Sky". As a matter of fact, Michelle Pfeiffer's character is named after the song "Lovely Rita" by the Beatles and her surname is that of a Beatles member, George Harrison and if you noticed in the film, Rita Harrison(Michelle Pfeiffer) points that George Harrison was her favourite Beatle. In addition, the background music mainly consists of Beatles music and other Beatles songs covered by various artists for certain rights.

The film is sweeping in its beauty, director Jessie Nelson did a great job in portraying her idea of "I Am Sam" into an absolutely wonderful movie especially after a 7 years of film directing drought. The cinematography is mostly hand-held work as the Camera is always close by to Sam for the obvious reason of picturing Sam's movement in a subjective sense allowing the viewer to actually feel with the character and pensively translate his actions. It's a closer look to the mentally handicapped people's world, that every act of their doing has an essence and that they are truly remarkable in their own "special" way.

Lastly, should a intellectual deficiency restrain one from raising his own child? We've all had a grandma or grandma that despite of their intelligence in life aspects, had difficulty in helping their kids with their Geometry homework but does that alone hinder the child from having a well educated natural life? The movie has a great message, that when it comes to parenting, love is the most important thing and if that is present then it most certainly paves the way to a healthy parent-child relationship.

The story of this film is really true. A mentally abnormal man having sex with a young light-minded lady and the result is an innocent child abandoned by her mother. The lady is obviously a person unable to take care of her child and fulfil her duties as mother, so she left the child to Sam, the abnormal man, a typical autistic, who, however, did all his efforts to raise her lovely daughter. Due to his difficulties to raise her, the law came to take her away for better education and living in another family. Sam loves her and moved to another house close to the one of the family where her daughter lives, and this may possible to her to visit so often her father and to even sleep from time with time with him. In conclusions, both love each other. I would not argue about the law, i.e. whether it was right or not when the Sam's daughter was taken away from him, I'd rather talk about the extraordinary acting of Sean Penn supported by Michelle Pfeiffer, he was simply the best. The film is very sentimental, but it makes me think whether the developed societies are doing enough to educate young women and men in their responsibilities as future parents.

In 'Rain Man', Dustin Hoffman gave the best portrayal I have ever seen of a mentally disturbed person, but Sean Penn came very close here. He was quite convincing but somewhat funnier. With Hoffman, I never quite knew when he was supposed to be funny, but with Penn there were many funny moments that I felt okay about laughing at. And I just had to like the character.

I've heard so many good things about Dakota Fanning, and now I see for myself. She's great.

The actors playing Sam's friends also seemed very convincing, one in particular. I didn't catch his name, but he wore glasses and I think he must have really been mentally disabled. The others could have been but might just have been acting.

MIchelle Pfeiffer was very good also, and gorgeous. And Richard Schiff was likable as the lawyer on the other side of Sam's case. In fact, I didn't see those who were against Sam as evil. They just had Lucy's best interests in mind. But I wanted Sam to win.

While it is true this may have been done before, I think this movie offered unique twists and qualities other movies didn't have, and the performances were very good.

Wheel after seeing the best movie of the world for 5 times and appreciating the brilliant performance of Sean Penn and all characters, i was think to myself of what is the real objective of the director Jessie Nelson.I think that behind the issue of the movie about the story of Sam trying to achieve Lucy's custody, the true goal of the film is to open our eyes about what is the most important things in our lives.It's clear in the movie that all the institutions that we created to rule our lives just fail when our deep emotions begin to show.Indeed, i think the question that appears on the movie is: What is really important to us?Reason or emotion?Is because of this and a lot of things that i consider this movie all perfect and that everyone in the world should watch it too.This movie added a lot in my life and showed me that all that we have to have in mind is to live well, happily and lovely.

Great, incredibly moving movie. Starts off slowly, and confusingly, but gets better and better, and more emotional, as it goes on. Ending feels a bit rushed, but that would be the only criticism.

Sean Penn gives a superb performance as the mentally challenged Sam. Deserved his Oscar nomination and very unlucky to miss out in the end (went to Denzel Washington for Training Day). Solid support from Michelle Pfeiffer as the tough-as-nails lawyer. Dakota Fanning is great as Lucy, Sam's daughter.

Aided by a great soundtrack, consisting of covers of Beatles songs by various artists. Artists include Ben Harper, Eddie Vedder, The Black Crowes, Cheryl Crow, Rufus Wainwright and Ben Folds.

Sam Dawson (Sean Penn) is mentally handicapped. He has a daughter but the mother runs away right out of the hospital. He finds himself as a working single dad to Lucy Diamond Dawson (Dakota Fanning). He gets his reclusive neighbor Annie Cassell (Dianne Wiest) to help along with his mentally challenged friends. Calgrove (Loretta Devine) and the Department of Child and Family Services go to court with prosecutor Mr. Turner (Richard Schiff) and take Lucy from Sam. Sam finds Rita Harrison Williams (Michelle Pfeiffer) from the Yellow Pages who has trouble communicating with her own son. She relents to do the case pro bono.

This is such a heart-wrenching movie. I really want it to work out for these characters but the movie doesn't make it easy to like it. The light comical tones get really annoying. Some of it is sort of cute but the movie really suffers from it. I don't want to laugh AT Sam and his friends. I want to laugh with them. And the movie is also trying very hard to manipulate the sentimentality. Sometimes less is more.

While Sean Penn overacts sometimes, I still like his character. And who doesn't love Dakota Fanning's character. Pfeiffer is the overwhelmed working mother character. Then add Dianne Wiest to the mix. It's awkward at times. It tries way too hard but I want good things for all these characters. That carries the day for me.

I Am Sam will likely make you say, "Wow!" afterward because it is a masterpiece on every artistic and technical level.

All of the major cast members give one of the best performances of their careers, and many of these actors have had a number of artistic triumphs on their résumés. Sean Penn is completely natural and believable as a developmentally disabled man. Two of the men playing his friends really were developmentally disabled, having been found at L.A. Goal, a non-profit agency dedicated to helping such people through a variety of programs, and it's next to impossible to tell them apart from the other actors. Nelson and her co-writer, Kristine Johnson, spent a lot of time at L.A. Goal doing research, as did Penn. Pfeiffer perfectly executes a complex character who has to undergo a number of far reaching transformations and even a breakdown of sorts. As for Fanning, I haven't seen her in a film yet where she didn't threaten to steal the whole thing from her senior, much more experienced colleagues, and during the filming of I Am Sam she was only 6 or 7. Wiest, Richard Schiff, Laura Dern and others also turn in very complex performances that convey characters with deep, multifaceted histories, despite their relatively little screen time.

This movie is made for people who love watching emotional movies! I loved it! Pfeiffer and Penn are wonderful as always. Dianne West has done full justice to her part as the reclusive neighbor. Dakota Fanning is brilliant...she manages to capture the innocence of a seven year old child and does not irritate. The scenes between Penn and Fanning are very well done and definitely bring tears in your eyes. The story is about a mentally challenged man named Sam(Penn)raising his seven year old daughter(Fanning), the result of a one night stand (the mother fled as soon as she was discharged from the hospital...leaving the daughter with Penn. Sam is a good father who loves his daughter unconditionally and raises her with the help of his neighbor (West) and friends. However, their 'perfect' world is in danger when some social workers decide to take Fanning away from Sam. Sam goes to a rich, ruthless lawyer(Pfeiffer) who helps him and tries to decrease the gap between her own son and herself by learning from Penn. A well made movie...

Sean Penn did it- he pulled off the acting performance of his career. The movie's a tearjerker. It's too melodramatic to be good. His retarted friends are too stereotypical, although I loved the paranoid guy. I liked Michelle's character, too. And the Beatles references. B-, 7/10

I Am Sam is one of those films that you will love for so many reasons and find infuriating at the same time. It is by far one of the best examples of acting talent across the board and evokes such levels of emotion that one is drawn deeply into the story. But, it makes a statement so one-sided and irresponsible that you cannot help but feel like you have just eaten a huge meal of empty calories by the time it is done.

The basic premise behind the film is that love is all that one needs in order to raise a child. It does so by showing Sean Penn's character -- a mentally handicapped man -- trying to raise his daughter on his own and having various officials coming down on him to "take his daughter away from him". It is a sad reality that is faced by some mentally handicapped parents, and one can't help but feel sorry for the situation.

Personally, I have a hard time accepting a film that ignores the reality of severely mentally handicapped caregivers. While they are indeed fully capable of giving as much love as anyone else, it is an unfortunate truth that some lack the mental facilities to properly raise children. I personally knew a mentally disabled person whose mental age was beyond that demonstrated by the character of Sam, and she had a difficult time raising a cat without injuring it regularly. Though she was repeatedly told by her veterinarian what she needed to do, she simply could not keep up to the ever changing demands of raising a living creature.

To put it in perspective, imagine Sean Penn replaced by Haley Joel Osment (at his age in the Sixth Sense) and having him take care of Dakota Fanning's character. In fact, that is still an over-exaggeration because Haley's mental age would still have been more than that of the character of Sam. Because we see Sean Penn physically as an adult, we don't question his abilities and we are more likely to feel sorry for him. But one has to look at the mental facilities and give it a likely comparison. We would never leave a 6 year old girl in the care of an 8 year old boy. In the same way, we can't automatically give the care of a 6 year old girl to a physically mature man with the mental facilities of a 8 year old.

While there cannot be a perfect parallel between all situations, certainly there must be some semblance of logic applied instead of just presenting heart-tugging sentiment such as what this film prefers to present. I find it irresponsible of the filmmakers to simply ignore the reality of the situation in order for it to hit home emotionally alone.

The film could have been equally effective had they simply acknowledged the fact that Sam really did not have the ability to take care of his daughter on his own and explored the emotional consequences of the situation he finds himself. It is tragic, but it is a fact that must be dealt with. And for the creators of this film to suggest the only gauge to deal with this situation is to ask how sorry you feel for the main character is condescending at best.

Beneath the emotional surface and the performances, this film is intellectually empty. A movie for the heart, not for the mind.