I finally got to see I Am Sam all the way through recently on the late night movie. I'm sorry I missed this when it was fresh in the theaters because it destroyed my bias that it would be one of the obvious tear jerkers and predictable.
Thanks to the writing and directing it was far from predictable nor was it obvious.
Sean Penn is one of America's classic actors in that he can play just about any role and kill it. Having had a sister who was mentally challenged, he got that part so dead on I was thinking all his character needed to do was hate doctors and it would be my sister up on the screen.
The film takes on two powerful topics - mainstreaming mentally challenged adults and child well-being.
In the not too distant history people like Sam would have lived their entire lives in an institution. They would live with insane and other people with different mental disorders. "Normal" people use to not want them around and would warehouse them out of sight out of mind. Adults that live in the community now are functional but don't comprehend or understand complex ideas that we all take for granted. They don't hide or moderate their feelings.
Today the government takes a more active role in protecting children. Some say they get too aggressive but in my view I would rather they make a mistake in a effort to help a child than the other way. Dealing with a mentally challenged parent has to be one of the most difficult things to handle when it comes to child protection.
This film does a good job of meshing the two topics without giving either short shrift.
Through a series of unfortunate events Sam loses custody of his daughter Lucy. He gets a high power lawyer Rita (played by the excellent Michelle Pfeiffer) to take his case pro-bono, mainly because her co-workers think she would never do pro-bono work. While preparing the case Rita learns first to care about Sam and his case and put her heart into it while also learning about why she was having issues with her own life and her relationship with her son Willy.
I said the film was unpredictable and the best example was a scene during a court hearing when Sam is being questioned on the stand. Mr. Turner (played by Richard Schiff) asks Sam what does it take to make a good parent. Sam thinks really hard and starts to give a long speech that seems so lucid and intelligent compared to his previous answers. The people in the room are stunned because the answer is so perfect then we find out he quoted a scene from the movie "Kramer vs Kramer". Then the look on the faces in the court room said "NOOOOOOOOOOO!" The ending of the film, while plosive, is left open to interpretation which I also liked.
The only quibble I had with the film was that Sam, being mentally challenged and obviously not understanding what was happening to him, was never given any help or an advocate. One example was when he had to see a state appointed psychologist and she explains to him at the start that since she was appointed by the court that he was waving his patient doctor privilege rights. She asks him more than once if he understood and he said he did but there is no way he knew what he was doing. There should have been an advocate there since Rita wasn't there to look out for his rights. Of course that could've been the point - that Sam was being held to the same standards as a intellectually adult person even if it didn't seem fair to Sam.
Still this is a great movie and I'm glad I watched it.
Thanks to the writing and directing it was far from predictable nor was it obvious.
Sean Penn is one of America's classic actors in that he can play just about any role and kill it. Having had a sister who was mentally challenged, he got that part so dead on I was thinking all his character needed to do was hate doctors and it would be my sister up on the screen.
The film takes on two powerful topics - mainstreaming mentally challenged adults and child well-being.
In the not too distant history people like Sam would have lived their entire lives in an institution. They would live with insane and other people with different mental disorders. "Normal" people use to not want them around and would warehouse them out of sight out of mind. Adults that live in the community now are functional but don't comprehend or understand complex ideas that we all take for granted. They don't hide or moderate their feelings.
Today the government takes a more active role in protecting children. Some say they get too aggressive but in my view I would rather they make a mistake in a effort to help a child than the other way. Dealing with a mentally challenged parent has to be one of the most difficult things to handle when it comes to child protection.
This film does a good job of meshing the two topics without giving either short shrift.
Through a series of unfortunate events Sam loses custody of his daughter Lucy. He gets a high power lawyer Rita (played by the excellent Michelle Pfeiffer) to take his case pro-bono, mainly because her co-workers think she would never do pro-bono work. While preparing the case Rita learns first to care about Sam and his case and put her heart into it while also learning about why she was having issues with her own life and her relationship with her son Willy.
I said the film was unpredictable and the best example was a scene during a court hearing when Sam is being questioned on the stand. Mr. Turner (played by Richard Schiff) asks Sam what does it take to make a good parent. Sam thinks really hard and starts to give a long speech that seems so lucid and intelligent compared to his previous answers. The people in the room are stunned because the answer is so perfect then we find out he quoted a scene from the movie "Kramer vs Kramer". Then the look on the faces in the court room said "NOOOOOOOOOOO!" The ending of the film, while plosive, is left open to interpretation which I also liked.
The only quibble I had with the film was that Sam, being mentally challenged and obviously not understanding what was happening to him, was never given any help or an advocate. One example was when he had to see a state appointed psychologist and she explains to him at the start that since she was appointed by the court that he was waving his patient doctor privilege rights. She asks him more than once if he understood and he said he did but there is no way he knew what he was doing. There should have been an advocate there since Rita wasn't there to look out for his rights. Of course that could've been the point - that Sam was being held to the same standards as a intellectually adult person even if it didn't seem fair to Sam.
Still this is a great movie and I'm glad I watched it.