I knew this film was about a man with severe learning difficulties who has a daughter, and I know the leading actor and actress, but I did not realise it got mixed to negative reviews, it was a bit surprising, but I had to see what I thought of it for myself. Basically in Los Angeles, Sam Dawson (Oscar nominated Sean Penn) is a man with autism, a developmental disability, following the abandonment by her mother, a homeless woman who "just needed a place to sleep", he becomes single father to his daughter, Lucy (Dakota Fanning). Despite his limitations, Sam is well-adjusted, with a job working at Starbucks, a supportive group of friends with developmental disabilities, and kind, agoraphobic neighbour Annie (Dianne Wiest) who takes care of Lucy when he cannot. Though Sam provides precocious Lucy with a loving and caring environment, she surpasses his mental ability, he has a mental age of 7, other children tease Lucy having a "retard" as a father, and she is too embarrassed to accept that she is more intellectually advanced than Sam. After Sam's parenting skills come into question and the authorities threaten to take Lucy away from him, Sam is advised by his friends to approach high-powered lawyer Rita Harrison (Michelle Pfeiffer). Rita has a reputation as being cold and unfeeling, due to a brusque manner, fast-paced schedule and difficult personal life, to prove to others that she is not heartless, Rita surprisingly agrees to take on Sam's case pro bono. As they work together to secure Sam's parental rights, Sam unwittingly helps Rita with her family problems, including encouraging her to leave her cheating husband and repairing her fractured relationship with her son. Sam and Rita share an emotional moment, both feeling that they have never felt good enough to solve their situations, they sob and hug each other. At the trial, Rita does everything she can to prove that Sam could be a good father to Lucy, but Sam breaks down following the counsel opposition that he is not capable of all responsibilities of being a father. After the trial, Lucy is put in foster care, residing in a home with Randy Carpenter (Laura Dern), who does everything she can to prove herself as her new "parent", while Sam is promoted and finds a new apartment in the neighbourhood. Lucy continually escapes from her room in the middle of the night to go to Sam's apartment, she tries to convince him that they should run away, but he returns her to the foster home each time. Randy realises she cannot give Lucy the same love that she has for Sam, the foster family decide ultimately not to go ahead with adopting Lucy, she will return her to Sam, Randy will tell the judge that Sam is a suitable and better parent for Lucy, they also make an arrangement that Randy will help raise her. The final scene takes place at a soccer game, Sam is refereeing and Lucy is playing, Randy and the foster family, Sam's friends and newly single Rita and her son are watching. Also starring Loretta Devine as Margaret Calgrove, Richard Schiff as Mr. Turner, Brad Allan Silverman as Brad, Mary Steenburgen as Dr. Blake, Joseph Rosenberg as Joe, Stanley DeSantis as Robert, The Green Mile's Doug Hutchison as Ifty and Ken Jenkins as Judge Philip McNeily. Penn is just about passable about the disabled man with a passion for Beatles music, but it is obvious this performance is for vanity, Pfeiffer is a little stereotypical as the lawyer who learns life lessons through helping her innocent client, and Fanning making her big screen debut is alright. You could argue this portrait of mental illness is offensive, inaccurate and even unhelpful, the script is overly sentimental, it is only mildly funny in moments, maybe for the wrong reasons, and it is perhaps a little too long, you could just shun it is Kramer vs. Kramer meets Forrest Gump, or Rain Man, but I went with it, a sort of uncomfortable but not completely awful comedy drama. Adequate!

I watched this movie as a child and already at 8 years old, I fell in love with it. Rewatching it at 18 impacted me even more. The acting is amazing. The story line is amazing. The way Sam makes changes everyone throughout the movie by simply being their friend is amazing. This film continues to warm my heart and make me cry. This is one I will show my kids.

I am sam is rated 7.6 at IMDb and considerably low at metacritic.com.Over the time since I first watched the movie. I believed if the conclusion was not in the favour of Sam but visiting rights were in his favour would have been excellent ending.The end however is more or less similar as Sam wants someone to be lucy's mother. It means it still fall in favour of critic's. Metacritic still has low rating, which leaves one wondering why! I recommend this movie. Nice emotional take.

Great, incredibly moving, movie. Starts off slowly, and confusingly, but gets better and better, and more emotional, as it goes on. Ending feels a bit rushed, but that would be the only criticism.Sean Penn gives a superb performance as the mentally challenged Sam. Deserved his Oscar nomination and very unlucky to miss out in the end (went to Denzel Washington for Training Day). Solid support from Michelle Pfeiffer as the tough-as-nails lawyer. Dakota Fanning is great as Lucy, Sam's daughter.Aided by a great soundtrack, consisting of covers of Beatles songs by various artists. Artists include Ben Harper, Eddie Vedder, The Black Crowes, Cheryl Crow, Rufus Wainwright and Ben Folds.