In an eye opening performance, Sean Penn plays mentally challenged Sam. It was the 2001 Academy Awards when I began to doubt the Oscars because Sean Penn was robbed of the Best Actor category. I really believed at the time, that Sean Penn was mentally challenged. He was way more deserving of the award than Denzel.

This is one film that can tug your heart strings and have your eyes flooded with tears. It's powered by the performances of Sean Penn, Michelle Pfeiffer and Dakota Fanning. Dakota has an innate ability to use her big beautiful eyes to induce crying. Michelle can steal a moment from Sean in any scene with her beautifully delivered words.

The story of fighting for custody of his daughter is one for all ages and it's a tragic story to be told but can captivate any audience and especially all mothers and fathers out there. When you finish watching, you'll have red eyes from wiping away those tears. You'll also be in a mood to start watching more movies containing Sean Penn.

If you've never seen a Sean Penn film before this, you'll believe that he is truly handicapped. Sean Penn's commitment to this role is accounted for six months of research on mentally challenged people. I'm not knocking Denzel Washington as an actor, as he's supremely talented. But Sean Penn has an uncanny ability to make you believe he is not playing a character of Sam, but is the character of Sam.

The character of Sam, is not inspiring because he is handicapped. It's due to how loving he is and how much fighting he does to get his daughter back and make her happy that makes Sam inspiring. Kids can watch this movie, and parents will enjoy it most of all. It's not a movie that should be missed by anyone. There's no reason to dislike, I Am Sam.

I haven't been a fan of Sean Penn's since Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Since that time, nearly all his films have left me flat. In fact, I nearly didn't watch this film since he was in it. What a loss it would have been if I'd missed it! I won't go into the story line since that's been reviewed a lot by others. The story is sort of a cliché'd one and has been done before, though not as well. The story isn't this film's strength anyway - it's the acting. Rarely have I seen a film with this much powerful acting. Penn's performance as Sam is brilliant! He must have studied autistic/mentally challenged people to pull this performance off. I also want to mention how good Michele Pfeiffer was in this. Her character starts out as a hard-hearted witch and ends up being very human, thanks to her exposure to Sam. The change in her is gradual, subtle and fun to watch. Sams friends, very well played by Brad Silverman, Joseph Rosenberg, Stanley DeSantis and Doug Hutchinson are very important support characters. Laura Dern gives a stellar performance as Randy. Dakota Fanning as Lucy very nearly steals the show. This little actress has quite a career ahead of her, I hope! This film is delicately balanced, and has a good bit of humor interspersed with parts that will have even the most insensitive of you reaching for a tissue. The film has a sort of a sappy (and somewhat surprising) outcome, but by this time any other ending would have been pretty much unacceptable to most people. This movie blew me away and I gave it a 9.

Do you like this "I Am Sam"?/Yes, I like it, Sam I am. *** What do you think of Sean Penn?/He is such a great actor when/He plays this role, trying to keep his daughter/He does it perfectly, through fire and water *** Does Michelle Pfeiffer do a good job?/She does, even if it makes you sob/I don't usually think much of her/But she's quite swell here, as it were *** And Dakota Fanning, is she alright?/She's a good actress/Every day and night/She's more than cute, I gotta say/This girl's got potential in every way *** So how much do you rate this flick?/Why do you ask? Is that a trick?/It's definitely something that you should see/The movie's as well done as can be *** Apologies to Dr. Seuss