I Am Sam

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BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="579" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 20 WIDTH="575"><div> <B>I am Sam </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFCC66" FACE="Wingdings 2" ><B>êêê</B></FONT><B>1/2  </B> (PG-13) </div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="575"><div> Reviewed By George O. Singleton</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="575"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="19" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="575" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 20 WIDTH="575"><div> <B>It takes one to know one… </B></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="580" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="269"><div> Sam: Sean Penn</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="304"><div> Annie: Dianne Wiest</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="269"><div> Mr. Turner: Richard Schiff</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="304"><div> Rita: Michelle Pfeiffer</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="269"><div> Margaret: Loretta Devine</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="304"><div> Randy: Laura Dern</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="269"><div> Lucy: Dakota Fanning</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="304"><div> Director: Jessie Nelson</div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> <B>30 Second Bottom Line</B>: A man with the IQ of a 7-year-old is taken to court by a social worker because she believes that he can not raise a child who will soon be smarter than he is.</div> <bR> <div> <B>Story Line:</B> Sam (Sean Penn) is the mentally challenged father of a baby girl that he loves and takes care of. The mother was a homeless woman who left them the day she was released from the hospital after the birth of Lucy (Dakota Fanning). Sam works at a Starbucks coffee shop making $8.00 an hour. He is deemed a good provider and dad until he starts to attend social events with children who are mentally superior to him. He is noticed by the government's social service agency when someone thinks that he touched another child in an inappropriate manner. Child Services worker Margaret (Loretta Devine) is sent to investigate. Not long before that, he was arrested for solicitation of a prostitute, when in fact he was just responding to a whore coming on to him without realizing that it was not just a normal casual conversation. With these two strikes against him, he's now on the defensive to keep his child.</div> <bR> <div> When Sam meets Rita (Michelle Pfeiffer), an attorney, she gives him legal lip service by telling him she knows someone she can refer him to. She never does and when he follows up, Rita winds up taking the case to save face with her colleagues. She is a driven, workaholic lawyer with an equally high powered husband, in a relationship where they have a great deal of difficulty simply picking up and taking care of their son, who is about the same age as Lucy. </div> <bR> <div> Rita thinks it will be easy to win Sam's case, as she never loses<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFCC66" FACE="Symbol" >¾</FONT> until she begins to understand how easily Sam misinterprets things that average adults do not. Mr. Turner (Richard Schiff), the lawyer for the social service agency, swings a soft bat in court but he's always trying to knock the ball out of the park. We know that Sam is in trouble when Rita interviews his close knit group of four mentally challenged friends and listens to their answers on why they think Sam is a good father. They say nice things about Sam but not necessarily what a judge wants to hear regarding the ability to be a responsible parent who provides proper direction to a growing child. </div> <bR> <div> Things really look grim when Sam's reclusive friend Annie (Dianne Wiest) comes to his defense and has trouble on the witness stand. Then there's Randy (Laura Dern), the loving foster mother who is willing to adopt Lucy.</div> <bR> <div> The million-dollar question is what is the right thing to do for the benefit of the child and the parent? Sam needs to make more than $8 an hour to properly support his family, but he doesn't have the mental skills to take on more responsibility.  Lucy understands and respects the foster parents but she loves her father, whom she misses dearly. Hopefully, there is a way to do what is right for all, without the foster parents having to adopt the child <B>and</B> the biological father. </div> <bR> <div> <B>Tell Me More About It</B>: I really liked the film even though I knew I was being manipulated with respect to the rights and feelings of the mentally handicapped. Sean Penn, Laura Dern, Dakota Fanning and Michelle Pfeiffer each give strong performances. I was probably kept from totally embracing the film because it was a little hard to watch. I was conflicted between what was the appropriate thing to do<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFCC66" FACE="Symbol" >¾</FONT>let the father keep the child, whom no one challenges that he loves or mistreats, or place her in a foster home with caring parents who have normal IQ's.</div> <bR> <div> As the plot unfolds, the film begins to be treated more as a comedy than as a docudrama, which is what I think of for this type of serious subject. For example, the reason Rita becomes the pro bono defense attorney for Sam is because she gets embarrassed into it in front of her business associates rather than because she cares or has a charitable bone in her body. Randy, as the foster mother, has compassion for Sam, who wants to be left alone to raise his daughter, and she manages to keep an open mind to do what is right for Lucy. These events are convenient for the story and although in some ways I didn't like it, it was probably the way to tell the story without it being a downer.</div> <bR> <div> While the film was certainly sentimental, it did make me think about things in a way I have not in the past. I now have more respect for mentally retarded people who are gainfully employed as well as those that employ them. My wife has never thought it funny when I used the term "retard," even when it was toward people with high IQ's (who've done something boneheaded), and now I don't either. I now understand that it's a word as ugly as any racial or ethnic slur. There just might be some validity to this concept of "politically correct."</div> <bR> <div> Many people I speak with about the types of movies they like tell me they want "feel good" films. They have enough stress in their lives already and what they don't want when they go to the movies is more angst in films like<I><B> </B></I><I><B>Black Hawk Down</B></I><I><B> </B></I>or dysfunctionality in <I><B>The Royal Tennenbaums,</B></I> but the soft touch of <B>Serendipity</B> or <B>Kate & Leopold</B><B>.</B> In <I><B>I Am Sam</B></I> you get the soft touch and not really a chick flick so that makes it a great film for both men and women. And because kids tend to not understand the issues of the mentally challenged, I recommend this as a family film. It will give you something positive to talk about after the movie is over. </div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="621" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="617"><div> Rated PG-13 for language</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="617"><div> George O. Singleton © 2001</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="617"><div> <A HREF="mailto:Reelmoviec@aol.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:Reelmoviec@aol.com"><U><U>George@reelmoviecritic.com</U></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> Mini Filmography </div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="579" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="286"><div> Sean Penn: <I>Up at the Villa</I></div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> Dianne Wiest: <I>Law & Order- TV</I></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 ><NOBR><div> Richard Schiff: <A HREF="id627.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Lucky Numbers"><U><I><B>Lucky Numbers</B></I></U></A></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> Michelle Pfeiffer: <I><B>What Lies Beneath</B></I></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 ><NOBR><div> Loretta Devine: <A HREF="id990.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Kingdom Come"><U><I><B>Kingdom Come</B></I></U></A></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="286"><div> Laura Dern: <I><B>Novocaine</B></I></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="286"><div> Dakota Fanning: <I>Tomcats</I></div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="286"><div> Director: <I>Stepmom</I></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>