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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

I Am Sam
New Line Cinema


7.9

based on 33 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 47 votes
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MPAA RATING: PG-13 for language

Starring Sean Penn, Michelle Pfeiffer, Dakota Fanning, Doug Hutchison, Stanley DeSantis, Brad Silverman, Loretta Devine, and Laura Dern

The compelling story of Sam Dawson (Penn), a mentally challenged father raising his daughter Lucy with the help of an extraordinary group of friends. When a social worker suggests that Lucy should be placed in foster care, Sam forms an unlikely alliance with a high-powered attorney (Pfeiffer). Together they struggle to convince the system that Sam deserves to get his daughter back and, in the process, fuse a bond that results in a unique testament to the power of unconditional love. (New Line Cinema)

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Kristine Johnson Jessie Nelson
DIRECTED BY:	Jessie Nelson
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: June 18, 2002 Video: June 18, 2002 Theatrical: December 28, 2001
RUNNING TIME:	132 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Not about the justice or injustice of the legal system. Rather it's about the tragedy of Sam's predicament.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Penn makes us take the leap required by Kristine Johnson and Jessie Nelson's screenplay -- you end up deeply caring about Sam and Lucy.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

A warm, hard-to-resist story.

TV Guide Frank Lovece

Penn's stark and unvarnished portrait of the challenged Sam makes even the hardest-to-swallow plot acceptable.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

Ham-handedly manipulative film.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

The role sounds like a sentimental trap, but Penn doesn't fall into it. It's a sensational performance, and he illumines a movie that sometimes seems in danger of descending into modish Hollywood political correctness.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

The cancer of dishonesty begins to grow half an hour into the film, and it riddles the picture by the end.

Slate David Edelstein

Just don't believe the anti-hype. There are lots of reasons to have a good cry these days -- here's a nice, warm place to get squeezed.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The kind of performance Penn delivers in I Am Sam, which may look hard, is easy, compared, say, to his amazing work in Woody Allen's "Sweet and Lowdown."

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

I can imagine the pitch meeting: "It's 'Kramer vs. Kramer' meets 'Forrest Gump.' No, wait, 'Rainman' has a baby!"

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

The dumbing down of low-IQ sentimentality.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

Not a bad movie, and its intentions are unimpeachable. But its sentimentality is so relentless and its narrative so predictable that the life is very nearly squeezed out of it.

Time Richard Corliss

As the director of this noble weepie, Nelson so overuses visual tricks -- zooms, zip pans and multiple perspectives on a simple scene -- that she turns the viewer into an exasperated parent; this is a directorial style in need of a spanking.

LA Weekly F. X. Feeney

By-the-numbers Oscar bait -- but Penn does manage, against such odds, to make us see Sam as a person, not a performance.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

There's only one excuse for the sentimental and ham-handed I Am Sam, and it's not to tout the rights of the mentally disabled.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

The film's one realistic performance is that of Dakota Fanning as Lucy, whose child's shame, fear and resourcefulness ground the movie in recognizable behavior. She breathes air into this suffocating enterprise.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

This isn't an ordinary film built on a remarkable performance; it's a poor one with a gem at its core. Penn can elevate it to mediocrity, but he cannot make it fly.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

I Am Sam is about as connected to the real world as Dr. Seuss's Green Eggs and Ham, from which its title is derived -- in fact, in the realism department, Seuss may have the edge.

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

It’s a heart-tugging scenario undermined by a striking hypocrisy: obscuring a hot-button issue in casting, some actors with Down's syndrome have minor roles, while Penn plays the lead -- and chews the scenery.

The New Yorker David Denby

Pfeiffer, enormously likable in the role, almost saves the movie. [28 Jan 2002, p. 90]

Washington Post Rita Kempley

Well-intentioned but ludicrous tale.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Contrived, manipulative and shamelessly sentimental, this film is notable for the courageous reach of Sean Penn, who gives a bold, heartfelt performance.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

It's a difficult issue, one that is not well served by a hollow confection like I Am Sam.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The film means well, but each scene gets clobbered by sappy screenwriting.

USA Today Mike Clark

Drawn out and dishonest in equal measure, Sam fights it out with "The Majestic" for the title of worst "important" movie of the year.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

The film is so busy that every minute is exhausting. It's as if the filmmakers were idealistic teen-agers afflicted with a group case of Attention Deficit Disorder.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

The movie that Disney uses to explore this premise drips with so much corporate good-neighbor syrup, you might want to wear something waterproof. And Penn's performance is, at best, ripe for discussion.

Film Threat Ron Wells

Is this what Sean Penn has come to in his 40s? He hasn't appeared this retarded since he was married to Madonna.

Variety Robert Koehler

An especially insipid example of the Hollywood message movie.

New Times (L.A.) Robert Wilonsky

In one of the year's most woefully manipulative and oppressively pandering offerings: I Am Sam, a dolled-up TV movie-of-the-week masquerading as profound cinema.

Austin Chronicle Steve Davis

It's a bad movie that only a parent could love.

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

Actual concussive cranial abuse would be preferable to Jessie Nelson's I Am Sam.

Salon.com Charles Taylor

Penn's portrayal strikes me as equally insensitive. It's the nightmare performance of 2001.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.9 (out of 10) based on 47 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Sarai V. gave it a10:
This is the best movie ever!

Bill H. gave it a10:
This is the best movie that I have ever seen, it made you sad,it made you happy, and filled you with unbelievable joy at the same time.

nicki c. gave it an8:
Loveable, and just the kind of movie with enough heart that you wish it could be so. Really liked the characters and the music. Have bought the soundtrack and listened to it often. Don't know what the critics are thinking!

[Anonymous] gave it a7:
Underrated...Sean Penn's performance deserves much more respect. The ending is a little too ideal and too happy, but enchanting altogether. Sure, things see-saw too much in the middle, but Penn does bring out the feelings and mentality of his character.

Beercan gave it a4:
I Am Sam is so focused on drawing audience tears and hitting them with a "message" that it forgets to become a real movie. As the retarded father trying to raise his daughter, Sean Penn is somehow both magnetic and utterly excruciating. So's the movie.

Ian K. gave it a9:
Are the friggin' critics serious? From Simon Birch to I Am Sam...they are passing these movies along like there bad! This and Simon Birch are two of the greatest movies i've ever seen! And yet you give snoozers like About Schmidt good reviews!

Juls P. gave it a 10:
Very marvelous movie!!!!!! those who rated this film below 1 are like stones!!!!!!

I Am Sam New Line Cinema

I Am Sam
New Line Cinema