Review of I Am Sam (2014) by Min K — 31 Aug 2009

Sean Penn's performance (which earned this film 1 of the 2 stars I gave it) is spot-on and comparable to Dustin Hoffman's "Rainman" or DiCaprio's "Gilbert Grape" character.

Unfortunately, the situations in this story are preposterous and melodramatic, and at times downright nonsensical. Pfeiffer no doubt is putting on her best performance, but it somehow feels out-of-sync with the language of the camera, which I do not attribute as a fault of the actress so much as the fault of the director.

Fanning does what she does best - play a girl who acts way too old for her age. Dianne Wiest and Laura Dern each play emotionally fraught characters whose sudden bursts of crying made no sense to me. The script involves some ridiculously crafted courtroom drama that feels more like a terrorist investigation than any respectable trial.

And the hand-held camera merely pulls focus away from intimate looks at Sam and the other leads, making me feel like I never got to get a good look into any of their psychologies. There are some nice moments of dialogue between Sam and his rag-tag group of disabled friends, which earns this film its second star.

A nice attempt at a potentially meaningful story - but no dice.