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Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) Binding: VHS Tape EAN: 9780780641112 Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Original recording reissued, NTSC ISBN: 0780641116 Label: New Line Home Video Manufacturer: New Line Home Video Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: New Line Home Video Release Date: February 04, 2003 Running Time: 132 minutes Sales Rank: 23264 Studio: New Line Home Video Theatrical Release Date: January 25, 2002
Amazon.com: I Am Sam makes you laugh, cry, and recoil all at the same time. Perhaps no other film of recent memory has epitomized the shameless sentimentality of Hollywood as succinctly as director and screenwriter Jessie Nelson's story of a mentally challenged man fighting to retain custody of his 7-year-old daughter. Sam (Sean Penn), who has the mental age of 7, wipes down tables at a Los Angeles Starbucks and takes good care of his daughter Lucy, who was left with him shortly after birth by a homeless woman. Sam has gotten by just fine with a little help from his friends, including his eccentric neighbor (Diane Wiest) and a lovable group of similarly challenged friends, but a series of misunderstandings leaves Sam fighting to get Lucy back from the state. Sam's lawyer, Rita Harrison (Michelle Pfeiffer), is an overly ambitious woman whose life is soon transformed by proximity to Sam's brimming humanity. Sean Penn is, as usual, wholeheartedly committed to his role and turns in an admirable, if overtly affected performance. However, I Am Sam, with all its earnest charm, reaches an emblematic low when Sam, a character apparently devoid of any authentic sentiment, delivers a courtroom speech memorized from Kramer vs. Kramer as the film's finale. --Fionn Meade
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Sean Penn is amazing
I've never seen this movie before, but my mum was practically giving it away (she's running out of space) so I grabbed it, and just happened to be in the mood for it. Instead of letting it sit and gather dust until I happen to be in the mood for it. Like most of my "to watch" pile is.
I Am Sam is one of those gems of movies that just has to be seen. From the sweetness of Sam, to the sarcasticness of Michelle Pfeiffer, to Dakota Fanning's debut film role. Each character has a role to fill, and the film could have so failed miserably, but each star makes their role special. Sean was ... Read More
Rating: - At least a whole box of tissues...
What a movie! The themes of love and loss, the underdog who wins in the end. The bullies who torment the sweet underdog are the stuff of legend.
This movie is full of archetypal images. But mostly it is about love!
All You Need Is Love!
Gonna keep this short and sweet because lots of other people have already reviewed it.
1. The acting is wonderful
2. The script is good as well, obviously fairly unrealistic
3. It is a real feel good movie
4. I fell in love with Sam when he was naming his baby from The Beatles song
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Rating: - Dakota's auspicious debut
Films about the developmentally disabled often border on ridiculous and demeaning. There are a few exceptions: Cuckoo's Nest & Rain Man immediately come to mind, and not to forget What's Eating Gilbert Grape (where Leonardo was nothing short of flawless). I Am Sam is such a film, with Sean Penn giving a thorough, heart-felt (and highly lauded) performance. There are issues, however, and the only time he really has to prove his 7-year old mentality is the perfectly uncomfortable temper tantrum he has at Bob's Big Boy. Michelle Pfeiffer is also excellent as a personally conflicted high-priced ... Read More
Rating: - The magnificent performances help dull the films preposterousness...
To say that `I am Sam' is not moving, stirring and heartbreaking would be a bold faced lie. Truth be told, this movie made me bawl, and I am not ashamed to say that. To say that this is an accurate depiction of the challenges of the mentally handicapped would also be a bold faced lie, for `I am Sam' is really a text book example of how Hollywood always tends to sink its sentimental claws into everything that is honest and pure. Instead of delivering a plausible or even remotely relatable account, `I am Sam' borders on preposterous, at times jumping right over the fence and running full speed ... Read More
Rating: - Sweet and sour
This is the most shamelessly cloying movie I have yet seen. A man with the mental capacity of a 7-year-old can't possibly raise a child, period, end of subject. This would be an amazing enough story if only to show how such a man could take care of himself, living more or less independently. But not only is Sam able to take care of himself, working at a minimum wage job and living in a nice apartment, he is also able to raise a child and somehow afford all the expenses. Apparently there is a lot I could learn from Sam!
The child is the best and the worst part of the story. She is so ... Read More
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