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The Movie:
I Am Sam
A Review by Mark McLeod
July 1st 2002
Sam Dawson (Sean Penn) is a mentally challenged man who holds down a job at
a local Starbucks restaurant. Due to his abilities he is unable to handle
the task of making all the different types of coffee so he is employed
simply as a janitor who cleans up spills, mops the floor and does some
moderate straightening up around the place. He's a personable fellow and
often comments on various customers drinks of choice. He seems to have a
real connection with the customers and is a valuable part of the Starbucks
team. His work is his life which is made all the more evident when Sam
forgets to go to the hospital to meet up with this mother of his baby. At
the hospital Sam witnesses the birth of his daughter from a homeless woman
who wanted nothing more from Sam then a warm place to sleep. The unnamed
woman abandons Sam with the young girl leaving Sam to raise Lucy all on his
own. There is no doubt that Sam loves his daughter but the challenges it
brings are more then he can handle and while he does his best to deal with
them they soon become more he can bare. Years pass and Lucy now seven is
beginning to really notice how different her father is as it becomes more
difficult for him to help her with her school work. The school also begins
to take notice of this and alerts the Department of Children and Family
Services who begin to look into the situation. Before long they hand down a
ruling that places Lucy in foster care for the period of one month before
the formal trial can begin. Sam is devastated and on the advice of his
other similarly abled friends seek out the advice of a lawyer. They settle
on Rita Harrison (Michelle Pfeiffer) a high powered and well regarded
attorney that specializes in child custody cases. She initially turns down
the case but agrees to handle the case pro-bono after she is seen talking
to Sam at an office party. As she begins to prepare the case it becomes
clear that her relationship with her son is anything but perfect and that
her workaholic lifestyle has created a great divide in her family
situation. Regaining sole custody won't be an easy fight for Sam as there
are very few witnesses that could provide compelling testimony on Sam's
behalf. Although the odds are stacked against them Sam and Rita try their
best to reunite Lucy with her father even if it's only in a limited capacity.
The film "I Am Sam" finds itself in a difficult genre for most male movie
goers and that is the emotional melodrama/tear jerker that have most males
running for the exits while their female companions use up entire boxes of
tissues as they sob away at the tragic situation of the main characters.
While I don't always find myself in that generalized grouping there are
times when I can't overcome the stereotype and fall victim to genre's
faults. By definition films that find themselves categorized in as "tear
jerkers" are overly manipulative and use a standard set of techniques to
drag the viewer into feeling a certain way at various points throughout the
film. "I Am Sam" directed by Jessie Nelson falls into this trap at almost
every turn as her direction takes away the viewers ability to create their
own thoughts and feelings and replaces them with a manufactured
set. Nelson does this by turning up the style meter to full power and thus
creates a film that uses every available trick to coax the viewer in the
correct way. This starts with the cinematography by Elliott Davis who
shoots almost all of the film on hand held cameras. The hand helds are
supposed to place viewers right in the midst of Sam's world but instead
they do almost the opposite and create a distance between the subject and
the audience. The visuals also use color to try and affect ones emotions by
using two distinct color schemes in the film. At times the film has a warm
almost golden glow to it which I feel symbolizes love. Then there are times
when the film is bathed in blue to give a cold and almost distant type
quality to the proceedings. If that's not enough pulling or pushing to feel
one way then the film's use of Beatles cover tunes will be. Every key
sequence in "I Am Sam" is played out against a cover version of a Beatles
song. It would be different if these songs were played in the background
but the dialogue is almost dropped completely leaving the songs to tell the
story. Being a music fan I've seen many films where the marriage of images
and music has been perfect but Dylan uses it almost as a character itself.
However this character takes the guess work out of the equation as it
spells out exactly how you are supposed to react to the events happening on
screen. Dylan also struggles with pacing as the film's early segments go by
too quickly while the custody battle drags on and on with very little
progress. It's also a bit troubling that a number of scenes are almost
carbon copies of scenes used earlier in the film. A lot of this repetitive
material involves Sam's scenes at the Starbucks where he consistently makes
errors and spills drinks with little fanfare from the loyal customer base
that has come to expect this as part of their daily visit.
Most of what makes "I Am Sam" work better then it probably should are the
performances from a very talented cast which is lead by Sean Penn. Penn has
come along way since his Spicoli days in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" and
is now considered one of Hollywood's top talents. Penn is very convincing
in the role of Sam Dawson a mentally challenged man who just wants the best
for his daughter. I don't really know many mentally challenged individuals
although there is one that works at a McDonalds near a movie theater I
frequent and when I ran into him after seeing this film I couldn't help but
feel that Penn's performance was dead on. Penn embodies and faces all the
same challenges that these truly remarkable individuals face on a day to
day basis. The only difference is that at the end of the shoot Penn was
able to return to the comfort of normal life. I've never been a huge fan of
his work but to me he really sold the character of Sam Dawson to myself as
an audience member. Michelle Pfeiffer is another actress whose work I
haven't always enjoyed but she does an acceptable job in the stereotypical
role of a female lawyer who only accepts the case to change how she is
viewed by her co-workers. The character of Rita Harrison isn't particularly
well written but Pfeiffer does make the best of her situation by giving a
performance that makes us look past her obvious faults. The actress that
really steals the show is young Dakota Fanning who in her debut performance
as Lucy really gives us hope that not all child actors are just pretty
faces. Fanning brings a warm approach to Lucy who clearly loves her father
but at the same time knows that he will soon be unable to provide
everything she needs. Also worth mentioning are supporting performances
from Brad Allan Silverman and Joe Rosenberg who play Sam's friends Brad and
Joe. Silverman and Rosenberg are both disabled actors and bring a level of
sincerity to the production that you couldn't get by casting actors and
having them play disabled.
"I Am Sam" is however not all misses as the screenplay by co-writers Jessie
Nelson and Kristine Johnson has a few touching moments and for the most
part seems to be based in reality. During pre-production Nelson and Johnson
visited the LA Goal center in Los Angeles, California where they observed
and befriended men and women with similar conditions to Sam. After spending
months doing this research they crafted the screenplay using the personal
experiences of those they met. This lends a real and unmanufactured quality
to the film as the challenges Sam faces are unexaggerated. The strongest
scenes in the film deal with Sam and his inability to truly understand that
situations that he is placed in. He doesn't understand it when the judge
won't allow Lucy to go home with him or grasp the consequences of when Lucy
lies to him about it being ok to go on a bus trip together. These moments
seem genuine because of the screenplay. However the nuances are lost when
the screenplay is brought to life as co-writer/director Nelson tries to
force the audience into feeling a certain way. Her stylistic choices, the
use of music instead of dialogue during key sequences really harm the film.
The material and performances for a stronger film are in place but the
elements don't come together correctly. There are things to triumph in the
film and there are things that just fall flat. "I Am Sam" is not a bad
film it's just not at the level where it could have been. The performances
are worth checking out and so is the screenplay but the final product is
less then stellar. A conditional recommendation.
Movie Rating : 6/10
The DVD
VIDEO:Released as part of New Line's Platinum Series collection "I Am Sam"
features a 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer recreating the film's
original theatrical presentation. It's always a pleasure to review a New
Line disc because they have been the most consistent in terms of their
video transfers. One can always expect a presentation of the highest
quality from New Line and the transfer on "I Am Sam" is no exception
although at first glance the look and feel of the film might be a bit off
putting. "I Am Sam" is a very different looking film visually and strays
from the sort of standard approach taken to an emotional melodrama. The
film's cinematography by Elliott Davis consists of a lot of hand held
camera work and the film's color palette is heavily manipulated to evoke
certain feelings from the audience. That said when you look past the
questionable stylistic choices of the director and production team the
transfer is quite appealing. The transfer is up to the usual standards and
as one would expect from a relatively new film as it features a nice sharp
overall look and is finely detailed. In terms of a color palette the film
really plays with the use of color and depending on the scene the colors
are either warm and inviting or cold and muted. The same can be said for
the flesh tones which for the most part appeared to be accurate though
wavered slightly during the blue tinted courtroom scenes. Problems are
limited to a minimal amount of edge enhancement, some slight film grain and
some shimmer on some window blinds. However on the plus side no pixelation
or print marks of any kind were seen. In short this is another technically
strong transfer from New Line even if the film's visual style causes ones
perceptions to be slightly altered.
Video Rating : 8.5/10
SOUND:"I Am Sam" is given a treatment fit for a king as New Line brings the film
to DVD with a plethora of audio options including Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS
5.1 tracks. Since the film is essentially a drama I wasn't really expecting
much in the way of an audio experience from "I Am Sam" and while I felt
that the DTS track was a nice addition it by no means is a requirement for
enjoying the film. The sound mix is mainly confined to the front of the
sound stage though on occasion the rear channels do provide an adequate
amount of ambience. There's no questioning that the dominant aspect of the
film's audio experience is it's musical score which consists entirely of
Beatles cover tunes by such artists as Ben Harper, Aimee Mann and Michael
Penn and Sarah McLachlan. However the standout tune from the soundtrack is
Eddie Veddar's You Got to Hide Your Love Away which plays out over one of
the film's more intense emotional sequences. The multi channel audio mix
really brings this song to life and it was as if I was hearing the sound
for the first time. The use of the subwoofer channel is essentially non
existent although there isn't really any need for it to be used in this
film. Overall things this remains a music and dialogue driven soundtrack
that sounds very appealing while still remaining a basic soundtrack.
Comparing the DTS and DD mixes, DTS comes out the winner as it provided a
more rich and enveloping approach to the music which is so important in
this musically driven film. Regardless of which mix you choose you won't be
disappointed with the sonics of the soundtrack.
Audio Rating : 8/10
EXTRAS: New Line releases "I Am Sam" as part of it's Platinum Series and while it
boasts a few impressive extra features this disc is nowhere near as packed
as some of the other discs in the line. That said the studio has always
been known for providing extras of the finest quality instead of just
slapping a bunch of electronic press kit type material on a disc.
"Becoming Sam" is the title of a nearly 45 minute documentary that deals
with many aspects of the film's production. This documentary takes an in
depth looking at the production of "I Am Sam" starting from the beginning
stages of preproduction through the casting process, the style and look of
the film and the musical selection process. Director Jesse Nelson talks
about her initial ideas for a film and how she and writer Kristine Johnson
were inspired by members of the LA Goal foundation which aides
developmentally different people in Los Angeles. Through their extensive
research Nelson and Johnson were able to capture the true emotions of this
special group of people which were then rolled into the character of
Sam. From here the documentary goes on to cover the casting process
including an interesting story about how Nelson met Penn on vacation and
how she immediately knew he was the man for the part. Other aspects that
are touched upon deal with the film's look which includes an unusual
stylistic choice of going with a number of hand held cameras during the
film's more emotional and important sequences. The documentary also
dedicates about 10 minutes to discussions about the importance of music to
the film. "Becoming Sam" is comprised of a number of interviews with
almost everyone involved with the production from the director, writer,
down to every principal character in the film. Sean Penn even sits down for
an interview which is a rarity for the reclusive actor. The rest of the
piece is made of footage from the film though no major plot points are
revealed other then those already announced in the trailer. Documentary
producer Laura Davis has done an excellent job editing together this piece
which combines the interview and film footage into a cohesive and
informative look at "I am Sam". It's certainly not perfect but it is a
number of cuts above the usual EPK.
Sitting down to talk about her film is director Jesse Nelson who gives a
blow by blow account of the feature film "I Am Sam" in this screen specific
audio commentary. This was another case where I was a bit hesitant to
listen to an audio commentary track as I had already invested a
considerable amount of time into viewing the film and wasn't really keen on
spending an additional two plus hours on the film. I decided to listen to
a bit of the track and see how it went and before long 134 minutes had past
and the commentary was done. Regardless of what I may think about the film
itself it's clear that this was a labor of love for Nelson who offers story
after story about the production of "I Am Sam". She talks about the visual
choices and approach she took to the film and about the core theme or
message that she was trying to get across to the viewers. Nelson provides a
solid argument for each of her points and while I may not agree with many
of them at least she had a reason for making the choices she did. The
commentary does cover a nice cross section of technical and thematic
choices and does go into a bit more detail in some areas that were talked
about on the included documentary. There are a couple aspects about the
track that I didn't care for. This includes the fact that Nelson is very
soft spoken and at times is hard to hear. If she had cranked the energy
level up just a bit it would have made for much nicer listening experience.
She also pauses a fair bit throughout the early sections of the track but
this clears up as she becomes more involved with the discussion of her
film. Lastly there is quite a bit of the usual back padding as Nelson
praises Penn's performance at every turn. It's not a perfect commentary
but it's worth listening to at least once.
Last but not least we have a collection of 7 deleted scenes that range from
40 seconds to 4 minutes that can be played with or without audio commentary
from director Jesse Nelson. There were some nice moments during these
scenes and the performances from Sean Penn, Dakota Fanning and Michelle
Pfeiffer were first rate but ultimately the film was already running a bit
long and some material had to go.
Rounding out the disc is the film's theatrical trailer presented in 1.85:1
anamorphic widescreen and Dolby Digital 5.1 sound as well as some text
based production notes and cast and crew biographies.
Extras Rating : 8/10
Final Thoughts: "I Am Sam" isn't a film for everyone. Those who like to form their own
emotional connection to the film will find the heavy handed spoon fed
emotions a little bit too much to take. It does however feature strong
performances from Sean Penn and newcomer Dakota Fanning as well as a strong
supporting cast including Dianne Wiest. New Line's Platinum Series DVD on
the other hand features excellent audio and video as well as a couple of
very interesting bonus features. If you enjoyed the film then this DVD
edition will make a nice addition to your collection. If you've yet to see
the film then it's probably best that you try it out as a rental before
committing to a purchase.
Disc Rating : 7.5/10
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