The movie starts the day Sam Dawson (Sean Penn)'s daughter is born. He is fascinated by her and names her Lucy Diamond after the Beatles song. He loves Lucy, and raises her to be seven. But unfortunately, Sam's mental capacity is near that of a seven-year-old, so that becomes a problem--whether or not he can raise his daughter. So eventually, a lawyer named Rita Harrison (Michelle Pfieffer) takes his case.
I was told Sean Penn used to beat up photographers, but I'm not hesitant to say he did a good job in "I Am Sam." Maybe it's because this is the first movie starring him that I've seen, but I believed he was the mentally retarded but lovable Sam. And Michelle Pfieffer did a great job. Her character, Rita, is basically heartless. But Sam changes her and gets her to spend more time with her family.
But the real standout performance was Dakota Fanning, who played Lucy. She was excellent for a child actor, and same here, I believed her.
Like others say, this WAS filmed at weird camera angles, but I think it fits the theme. It's in the eyes of Sam, who sees everything in a different way. How something is filmed shouldn't affect whether or not you want to see it (except maybe "The Blair Witch Project"), because then you would miss a really great movie, because that's what "I Am Sam" is.---------9/10
I was told Sean Penn used to beat up photographers, but I'm not hesitant to say he did a good job in "I Am Sam." Maybe it's because this is the first movie starring him that I've seen, but I believed he was the mentally retarded but lovable Sam. And Michelle Pfieffer did a great job. Her character, Rita, is basically heartless. But Sam changes her and gets her to spend more time with her family.
But the real standout performance was Dakota Fanning, who played Lucy. She was excellent for a child actor, and same here, I believed her.
Like others say, this WAS filmed at weird camera angles, but I think it fits the theme. It's in the eyes of Sam, who sees everything in a different way. How something is filmed shouldn't affect whether or not you want to see it (except maybe "The Blair Witch Project"), because then you would miss a really great movie, because that's what "I Am Sam" is.---------9/10