I Am Sam movie

A mentally retarded man fights for custody of his 7-year-old daughter, and in the process teaches his cold-hearted lawyer the value of love and family.

I Am Sam is a 2001 film about a mentally retarded man and his efforts to retain custody of his daughter.The film stars Sean Penn, Michelle Pfeiffer, Dakota Fanning, Dianne Wiest, Loretta Devine, Richard Schiff, Laura Dern and Brent Spiner and was written by Kristine Johnson and Jessie Nelson, who also directed the film. The film also features three people, with disabilities, who are playing themselves: Brad Silverman, Joe Rosenberg, and Brian Bialick, all of them are in a group called L.A. GOAL (Greater Opportunities for the Advanced Living), a social organization that deals with adults with developmental disabilities.Sean Penn was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor.SynopsisSam Dawson (Sean Penn), a mentally challenged adult, is single-handedly raising his daughter Lucy (Dakota Fanning), whom he fathered from a homeless woman who wanted nothing to do with Lucy and left him the day of her birth. Although Sam provides a loving and caring environment for the 7-year-old Lucy, she soon surpasses her fathers mental capacity.

Questions arise about Sam?s ability to care for Lucy and a custody case is brought to court.Sam is a man with a mental age of 7 who is well adjusted and has a great support system consisting of four similarly developmentally disabled men. His neighbor Annie (Dianne Wiest), a piano-player and agoraphobe, befriends Sam and takes care of Lucy when Sam cannot.He works at Starbucks bussing tables. Sam is popular with the customers, whom he addresses by name and favorite coffee. His job only gets difficult when Lucy starts grabbing objects and making a woman spill iced coffee down her shirt. In a humorous, but innocent exchange, Sam tries to remove an ice cube from the startled womans cleavage. Sam then brings Lucy to his neighbor and baby Lucy croons, "Annie!" Sam says, "Her first word was Annie." Flustered but flattered, she retorts, "And people worry you arent smart," and agrees to function as Lucys babysitter.It seems that life is great for the preschooler Lucy Diamond Dawson.

All I Am Sam trailers available on youtube

I Am Sam Cast

• Brad Silverman
• Dakota Fanning
• Dianne Wiest
• Doug Hutchison
• Joseph Rosenberg
• Ken Jenkins
• Laura Dern
• Loretta Devine
• Mason Lucero
• Michelle Pfeiffer
• Richard Schiff
• Rosalind Chao
• Stanley DeSantis
• Wendy Phillips