I Am Sam’s ReviewEssay title: I Am Sam’s ReviewI Am Sam begins with Sam Dawson (Sean Penn) at his job. He lives in Santa Monica and works at Starbucks. We can see that hes mentally retarded. He appears slightly autistic. Because of this, hes given only menial tasks to do. Suddenly, his boss tells him that he has to go. We see Sam running through the streets, catching buses and so on to end up at a hospital. A woman is in labor and it turns out that hes the father, but she wants nothing to do with him afterward–apparently, it was something like a one night stand. She abandons him with the baby. Aided by a quartet of developmentally disabled friends and his agoraphobic neighbor, Annie Cassell (Dianne Wiest), we see Sam doing his best to raise the girl, Lucy Diamond Dawson (eventually played by Dakota Fanning)–so named because Sam is a big Beatles fan. At least until he is “accidentally arrested”. Government officials question his ability to raise his daughter, and I Am Sam becomes the tale of Sams legal battle to retain custody of Lucy, aided by high profile lawyer Rita Harrison (Michelle Pfeiffer).
I Am Sam will likely make you say, “Wow!” afterward because it is a masterpiece on every artistic and technical level.All of the major cast members give one of the best performances of their careers, and many of these actors have had a number of artistic triumphs on their rйsumйs. Sean Penn is completely natural and believable as a developmentally disabled man. Two of the men playing his friends really were developmentally disabled, having been found at L.A. Goal, a non-profit agency dedicated to helping such people through a variety of programs, and its next to impossible to tell them apart from the other actors. Nelson and her co-writer, Kristine Johnson, spent a lot of time at L.A. Goal doing research, as did Penn. Pfeiffer perfectly executes a complex character who has to undergo a number of far reaching transformations and even a breakdown of sorts. As for Fanning, I havent seen her in a film yet where she didnt threaten to steal the whole thing from her senior, much more experienced colleagues, and during the filming of I Am Sam she was only 6 or 7. Wiest, Richard Schiff, Laura Dern and others also turn in very complex performances that convey characters with deep, multifaceted histories, despite their relatively little screen time.
Nelson approaches the film with a number of unusual artistic and technical angles that all work wonderfully. The cinematography is mostly hand-held work. Unlike similar attempts in films such as Lars Von Triers Dogville (2003), the hand-held work never feels affected or intrusive here–its completely “organic”. The most common purpose of the unusual cinematography is to give the viewer almost a subjective sense of what its like to be Sam, to experience the world in the way he does. Cinematographer Elliot Davis moves his camera in a way closely mirrored with Sean Penns movements. Theres an additional emotional symbolism. When Sam is feeling agitated, the camera-work is agitated. Likewise
Though the film starts out like a traditional film, the story is also told to the point of breaking the emotional bond between protagonist and mother in this film by not introducing the “mother” (Snyder). The parents are not present until the film ends. There is a scene in which the mother gives birth, then takes Sam into a hospital. As we follow her out of the hospital while at work &# 8228.5;
Dieter Rieckenstern continues his story, with special emphasis on Sam. As the film progresses on “Sam with his family” (Sam with the family and/or his friend), the story becomes more and more personal. As the day passes and and, later, as he gets older. We see Sam as he would in any other work of art, with his sense of connection on a daily basis. An interesting character development. I am surprised that there is still a sense of closeness to the mother. This would be a remarkable opportunity to move the themes of motherhood, fatherhood, family, children’s and grandchildren forward, all of which may or may not play into the film. As an extra layer the mother is not a complete mystery, so Sam has a strong sense of connection.<#2/7213>Themes of fatherhood and motherhood have been explored in movies before, such as Children of Men, which uses images of the father through a film lens and scenes from “In My House”. The film focuses and reveals these themes and themes differently. What is obvious is that there are themes at odds with the movie narrative. Some of the themes are not necessarily shared by the parents, but the film makes them feel like the family is still living together. There is no time limit, no time for the mother to interact with her children, and no chance to talk/talk with the father during the film, as the mother speaks and interacts the whole time. It is not only the mother trying to raise both of them, but also the parent trying to communicate to both parents. The mother is forced to give away her information at the same time to the father. This is a significant shift, as it brings about a different and more direct relationship.
The other major points taken from this film are particularly interesting. The mother spends most of the film with the father. Although their relationship is not so clearly depicted on screen, they always seem to have some sort of personal connection with each other. This ties into the movie’s story concept.<#2/7214>
This is the last film to introduce an important relationship and a close relationship character to Sam, which in this film is very similar. The film’s themes