MOVIE SCENE
'I Am Sam' is family drama straight from heart
By Jack Garner
Gannett News Service
Do you have to be smarter than your child to be a good parent?
Or, are other criteria just as important — like love and trust and emotional support and security? Maybe such things are even more important than brains?
Sam Dawson (Sean Penn) is a mentally challenged man with the intelligence of a 7-year-old. But he also has fathered a little girl. And when the ne'er-do-well mother runs away, it's up to Sam to raise the child.
When the child turns 8 — and is going to school — government authorities and social workers want to take the child away from her father.
That's the premise of "I Am Sam," a heartfelt drama that showcases a stunning performance by Sean Penn.
Sam gets along fine as a clerk at a coffee shop, and is happy as long as his routine isn't disrupted. There's breakfast at IHOP on Wednesday, video nights with his disabled buddies on Thursdays, and karaoke on Fridays. His life is as well-ordered as the sugar packets and salt-and-pepper shakers he lines up on tables at Starbucks.
And as long as his daughter, Lucy (Dakota Fanning) remains a fresh-faced pre-schooler, all is fine. But when Lucy starts to mature — and goes to school — Sam's life gets complicated.
A heartfelt drama about a mentally disabled father (Sean Penn) who fights to maintain custody of his precocious little girl. Michelle Pfeiffer co-stars as his lawyer. Jessie Nelson directs. New Line Cinema, 132 mins.
Lucy is very bright, but reluctant to do well in school. She loves her dad too much to demonstrate an intelligence that surpasses his. She also hears derogatory remarks from friends and classmates about her father.
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I AM SAM (PG-13 for profanity) Three and One-Half Stars (Good-to-Excellent)
Teachers and social workers begin to note problems. It looks like Sam will lose his daughter to a foster family.
But Rita Harrison (Michelle Pfeiffer) enters the picture. She's a work-obsessed, fast-track lawyer.
Although she wouldn't normally be caught dead with a disadvantaged, pro-bono client, she is finally publicly embarrassed into taking Sam's case.
Rita also has parenting problems; her obsessive work habits have distanced her from her own child. She's just one of many people who could use parenting lessons from Sam.
"I Am Sam" benefits from strong performances at all levels.
Pfeiffer manages to be both irritating and strangely sympathetic as the success-obsessed lawyer, and eventually makes you aware of the pain in her life.
Youngster Dakota Fanning makes the precocious Lucy believable and lovable. Playing a child who's smarter than her parent must have been a unique challenge — but Fanning more than meets it.
Diane Wiest, Mary Steenburgen and Laura Dern contribute memorable moments in small-but-important roles, while Sam's best buddies are well-played by Doug Hutchison, Stanley DeSantis, Brad Allan Silverman and Joseph Rosenberg. (The latter two are mentally disabled in real life.)
Director and co-writer Jessie Nelson energizes her film with up-close, fly-on-the-wall camera work and an ultra-bright, sun-drenched color scheme.
The film gets a key boost from a soundtrack of Beatles songs, lovingly remade by various contemporary artists.
Sam, you see, loves the Beatles. And when it's suggested that he doesn't have what it takes to be a good father, he reminds us that no one thought George Harrison was much of a songwriter.
"But then he wrote 'Here Comes the Sun,' the best song on 'Abbey Road."'
"I Am Sam" shines with warmth and illumination, just like that sun.
Rated PG-13 for profanity.
