I Am Sam Review

I Am Sam is a powerful, emotional movie that explores the life of a mentally handicapped man that has a child with a homeless woman who does not want anything to do with the child, so Sam is forced to raise her on his own. This situation is fine until the child develops higher intellectually than her own father, who is about the age of a seven year old. Sam goes to court to show that he is capable of taking care of Lucy. At this time he receives help from a neighbor lady who is agoraphobic. She watches Lucy for Sam when he cannot take her to work. A funny scene where Lucy gets Sam in trouble is at Sam’s job, Starbucks, when she spills a drink down the front of this lady. Sam has a support system of friends that are handicapped as well. They meet at IHOP every week to have pancakes

The turning point of the movie is when Sam takes Lucy to a Halloween party, and her friends make fun of Sam for being himself and call him retarded and this embarrasses Lucy. Lucy says that she is actually adopted which raises suspension with some of the parents. This calls into play a social worker who deems that Sam is incapable of taking care of her. And the state takes her away from Sam. When this occurs Sam takes action by hiring a big name attorney to help win the case. All the court battle goes through and Sam loses custody of Lucy to a great family who is planning on adopting her. Lucy runs away from her new family to see Sam, and eventually the family gives custody to Sam, and the woman form the family helps to raise Lucy with Sam.

If I were in the shoes of a judge or a social worker, I would not take Lucy away from Sam, but would do what happened at the end of the movie. Sam is going to need help raising Lucy into her teens. So I would make the situation where a social worker or someone such as that would help Sam with Lucy. He is capable of caring for her, but not capable of giving the enrichment she needs for a growing mind.