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HugeReviews.com Reviews:
I am
Sam's Complete Lack of Surprise: I am Sam
by Christian De Matteo
Solid
I was
looking forward to this movie for one reason and
one reason only: Sean Penn's acting. Guess what
the main pleasure I got from the movie was? Right,
Sean Penn's acting. Since his brilliant turn in Sweet
and Lowdown I have considered myself a fan
of his ability, and he did not at all disappoint.
Playing the part of a mentally handicapped person
in a film that is not a comedy is a highly
daunting task, one that few actors I can think of
would or should be brazen enough to attack. But I
knew Penn could do it; He could be funny when he
needed to be funny (Sam falls down the stairs with
an ice cream cake) and heartbreakingly serious
when he needed to be serious (Sam looks up from
the fallen cake and apologizes and kisses his
daughter). He was perfect.
Add to his
performance one of the cutest little girls I've
ever seen in a movie, (no, not the Pepsi girl
though she was good in The Insider) Dakota
Fanning. The sequence when she keeps escaping her
foster parents house to walk to Sam's is at once
hysterical, incredibly cute and astoundingly
poignant, and most of this is due to some very
natural acting on her face. Fantastic.
Diane
Wiest is also excellent in her performance,
particularly her moments on the stand.
BUT:
Welcome to the but section. Here are the problems.
Since we've been discussing actors, we'll stay
there for a moment, before attacking the meat and
potatoes problems with the film.
Michelle
Pfeiffer, who I love, is painful. Now, I must say
I believe this to be more the fault of the film's
largest problem, it's editing, than Michelle's,
but maybe not. Whereas Pfeiffer usually gives
performances of many layers and depth, here we get
a performance worthy of a movie of the week. She
delivers only a cookie-cutter rendition of the
"Career Mom with Family Problems Desperately
Wanting her Connection with her son Back" and
does it so stereotypically that even Valerie
Bertonelli could have pulled it off. Terrible.
Again, I do believe this is due to editing,
though, so let me get into that.
The film
is terribly edited. Not at all the debacle that The
Limey was, but certainly bad enough to suck
some life and soul from a movie that should have
been nothing but those to things. It has the
distinct feel of a movie butchered in
post-production, the feel of three and half hour
movie cut down to a (still too long) two hours put
back together with bubblegum and little care.
The most
glaring example of this is the infamous sex scene
that we all heard through the rumor mill was cut
between Sam and Pfeiffer's character. Well, I
personally am glad they cut it because it would
have had no place in the film, but you know what?
They should also have cut the two scenes following
it that refer rather obviously back to it. Why is
Sam suddenly telling her to leave her husband? Why
are they coyly embarrassed upon seeing each other
the next day? Terrible.
Next we
have the nail in the coffin error: The whole movie
is leading up to one courtroom scene where
everything important will be decided.
The scene is not
in the movie.
No, instead we
get an "groundbreaking and touching"
scene before it and a "This should clear
everything else up" scene after it: A
terrible anti-climax.
Due to all these
editing and directing errors, the audience is left
not sure what the movie even was saying about
whether mentally handicapped people should be
allowed to raise children. I think I figured it
out, but only after much deliberation and I'm
still not positive I'm right. To my mind, the
movie is one about failure, allowing yourself to
accept it and knowing when to ask for help. But
this could be wrong. Personally, I like that
reading, so I'm going to stick with it.
I give it a Solid mostly because of Penn's frankly Oscar
worthy performance which everyone should see, but
that and a very cute Fanning are all that save it
from a high end Wimpy rating. I am Sam is an
enjoyable if frustrating and a tad too long watch,
worthy of video rental with a significant other.
PS. Two hundred points to whoever
guesses the movie reference in the title to this
review.
[Editor's note:] Welcome
to HUGEReviews.com, where the reviews are made up
and the points don't matter.
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