I Am Sam (2001) - Penn and Fanning elevate flawed disability drama

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Two major stars sit across from each other against a backdrop of familial affection on this poster for Jessie Nelson's I Am Sam

Sam is a father and intellectually disabled, and therefore the authorities want to remove his daughter from his care. But isn't his big, pumping love for her the most important thing for her well-being?

 

I Am Sam is written by Kristine Johnson (Imaginary Crimes (1994)) and co-writer/co-producer/director Jessie Nelson (Corrina, Corrina (1994)).

Sean Penn's (The Gunman (2005)) heartwarming performance as Sam makes this otherwise wobbly drama worthwhile, and he is supported by Dakota Fanning (Hounddog (2007)), who is impossibly sweet as his daughter Lucy, as well as from Dianne Wiest (The Humbling (2014)) as the good lady across the street, as well as two actors actually living with intellectual disability. 

The direction is regrettably heavy-handed: Telling looks, which the characters should have bared for a split second during a scene are instead held through entire scenes, so that the film seems condescending in its taking us for saps. Almost all the scenes in I Am Sam are chasing the wildly emotional with an at times annoyingly handheld camera. The dichotomy of the court case climax and the film's message over-all are mostly of the overly simplified Hollywood kind, here the Beatles-inspired wisdom of 'love solves everything'. Michelle Pfeiffer (What Lies Beneath (2000)) plays an overstrung career woman, failing in making her seem real. 

 

 

 

 

Watch a trailer for the movie here

 

Cost: 22 mil. $

Box office: 97.8 mil. $

= Big hit (returned 4.44 times its cost)

[I Am Sam premiered 3 December (Beverly Hills) and runs 132 minutes. Penn was paid 5 mil. $ for his performance in the film. Shooting took place from March - May 2001 in Los Angeles, California. The film opened #47 to a 41k $ first weekend in 2 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #7 and in 1,450 theaters (different weekends), grossing 40.3 mil. $ (41.2 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Japan with 25.7 mil. $ (26.3 %) and South Korea with 9.8 mil. $ (10 %). The film was nominated for 1 Oscar, for Best Actor (Penn), lost to Denzel Washington in Training Day. It was also nominated for a Grammy, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 2/4 star review, translating to a notch under this one. Nelson returned with Love the Coopers (2015). Penn returned in It's All About Love (2003); Pfeiffer in White Oleander (2002). I Am Sam is rotten at 35 % with a 4.70/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

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