Dr Suess, eat your heart out! (I Am Sam (DVD))

Name: AmandaJP

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Product:	I Am Sam (DVD)
Date:	26/04/04 (208 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: very well acted, makes you laugh, makes you cry

Disadvantages: none

I am Sam is one of my favourite all time movies so, as no one else as reviewed the DVD I thought I should enlighten you all.
This film makes you cry buckets, laugh out loud and feel happy inside all at once.

THE PLOT:

Sam (Sean Penn) is a 'mentally challenged' man who lets an homeless girl stay with him. She ends up getting pregnant and when the baby is born, she leaves, and doesn't take the baby with her.
Sam, who is a massive John Lennon fan calls the baby Lucy from the song 'Lucy in the sky with diamonds'
He trys very hard to look after the child giving her all his love, but when she is heard screaming his friend and neighbour Annie, played by Dianne Wiest, helps out. She gives him basic instructions on how to look after the baby. She teaches him to feed her by leaving the 'nickleodeon' channel on and feeding when certain programmes come on.
Sam, who has a job clearing tables at starbucks, takes Lucy to work with him every day until she gets too big at which point Annie becomes Lucys babysitter.

Sam has 3 friends who he sees every day and although jealous at first all come to love Lucy and help Sam out buying new shoes and things for her.

In the way that Raymond from Rainman was set into his routines, so is Sam. He goes to particular diners on particular days and orders the exact same food.
"Wednesday's is IOP"
Lucy loves her dad and Sam loves Lucy. The only problem is that Sam has a mental age of 7, and as Lucy approches her 8th birthday she realises that she is more intelligent than her dad and becomes 'scared' of learning.

A misunderstanding means that Sam is arrested for speaking to a prostitute and has to spend the night away fro
m Lucy. An interfering social worker decides to get involved when she realises that the mentally challenged prisoner has a child.
After visiting his home on Lucys birthday, when one of Lucys very spoiled classmates claims that Sam attacks him, Lucy is taken into care by the social worker.

The rest of the film is centered around Sams battle to get his daughter back. He does this with the help of an high powered attourney played by Michelle Pheiffer. She takes on his case 'Pro Bono' (free) to save face with her colleages.

The film is VERY well acted. Sean Penn received an Oscar nomination for his part and in my opinion he should have won. The little girl who plays Lucy, Dakota Fanning, is excellent. I am certain that she will become the female Haley Joel Osmet. The actors who play Sams friends are also brilliant, 2 of them actually do have 'mental problems' and the other who is an 'ordinary' actor does very well also.

Give this film a go, it really is excellent. The DVD also contains a lot of extras such has;
Filmaker commentary
Original documentary: becoming Sam
Delated/alternate sceens
Thatrical trailer


Thanks for reading

Amanda x x x

Summary: