I am Sam (2001)

 “Yeah. It’s an outgoing message so I think you need to sound a little more outgoing.” – Ifty

Number of Times Seen – 2 (22 Sep 2002 and 25 Jun 2014)

Brief Synopsis – A mentally challenged man must fight the courts in order to retain custody of his 7 year old daughter.

My Take on it – This is another movie that I recall enjoying very much when I saw it 12 years ago, but upon rewatching it, my opinion has drastically changed.

The premise happens to be a very good one but I felt that the script just wasn’t strong enough to keep it interesting. It just seemed that they were trying too hard to make the main character (played very well by Sean Penn) to be funny when they should have left the story as a straightforward custody drama.

I wasn’t sure if Penn was trying to imitate Dustin Hoffman’s Raymond or Tom Hanks’ Forrest Gump. Both of those performances were referenced too many times throughout the movie.

As for Michelle Pfeiffer, her character seemed so unsympathetic the whole way thru and I didn’t feel that she was sincere enough in her role.

Bottom Line – Very good premise but I felt that the story felt too juvenile and simplistic. Penn is very good here but his character’s inflections are way too reminiscent of Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man (1988) and Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump (1994).

Rating – BAFTA Worthy

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