I Am Sam

Am Sam is the compelling story of Sam Dawson (Sean Penn), a mentally-challenged father raising his daughter Lucy (Dakota Fanning) with the help of an extraordinary group of friends. As Lucy turns seven and begins to intellectually surpass her father, their close bond is threatened when their situation comes under the scrutiny of a social worker who wants Lucy placed in foster care.

Faced with a seemingly unwinnable case, Sam vows to fight the legal system and forms an unlikely alliance with Rita Harrison (Michelle Pfeiffer), a high-powered, self-absorbed attorney who initially takes his case pro bona as a challenge from her colleagues. On the surface the two couldn't be further apart, but in reality they are subtly similar. Sam's compulsive nature mirrors Rita's more socially acceptable obsessive-compulsive nature. Her manic need for perfection and success alienates her from her own son and has been slowly destroying her self-worth.

Together they struggle to convince the system that Sam deserves to get his daughter back and, in the process, fuse a bond that results in a unique testament to the power of unconditional love.

New Line Cinema presents I Am Sam, directed by Jessie Nelson from a screenplay by Nelson and Kristine Johnson. Nelson also produces along with Edward Zwick, Marshall Herskovitz and Richard Solomon of the Bedford Falls Company. The executive producers are Claire Rudnick Polstein, Michael De Luca and David Scott Rubin. The film stars Sean Penn, Michelle Pfeiffer, Dianne Wiest, Dakota Fanning, Richard Schiff, Loretta Devine and Laura Dern. Rounding out the cast as Sam's loyal group of friends are Doug Hutchison, Stanley DeSantis, Brad Allan Silverman and Joseph Rosenberg.

The film features a soundtrack of contemporary covers of classic Beatles songs, recorded by such acclaimed artists as Sheryl Crow, Eddie Vedder, Ben Harper, Ben Folds, The Wallflowers, Sarah McLachlan and Aimee Mann & Michael Penn.

I Am Sam (rated PG-13 by the M.P.A.A. for "language") will be released in Los Angeles and New York on December 28th, 2001 and wide on January 25th, 2002.

about the story

I Am Sam is a powerful, emotional film about love, parenthood and the bonds of family. "I'm fascinated by what makes a family and how people create that in untraditional ways," says director and co-screenwriter Jessie Nelson. "I think all parents at times feel confused and overwhelmed. It is a common bond between every parent on the planet, whether you're disabled or not. Parents who are disabled provide a unique metaphor for how we're all trying to get through an incredibly challenging world and how we all ultimately need some type of support system."

Raising a child is never easy, but like everybody, Sam Dawson (Academy Award nominee Sean Penn) has learned to adapt. Sam and his daughter Lucy (Dakota Fanning) have gotten through the basics, though not always in the conventional way, with the help of Sam's tightly-knit group of friends. Though Lucy's life has never been what anyone would ever call "normal," it has always been animated with humor and full of love.

"Lucy and her dad go to IHOP on Wednesday, video night on Thursday, karaoke night on Friday," says Dakota Fanning, the 7-year old newcomer who plays Lucy Diamond. "They just have the best time together."

But when Lucy turns seven, social workers step in. Sam is mentally-challenged, and it will be up to the courts to evaluate his ability to raise Lucy. "Having Sam as a father has worked well so far," explains co-screenwriter Kristine Johnson, "but as Lucy starts school, she is forced to deal with people's attitudes and judgments about Sam as well as her own changing relationship with him."

Lucy has begun to downplay her own intellectual and emotional growth, careful not to surpass that of her father. "She does it because she loves her dad," says Fanning. "She doesn't want to be older. She wants to stay the same as he is."

When Lucy is removed from her home by county authorities and placed with a foster mother, Sam devises a plan. "My friends and I go through the Yellow Pages," explains Sean Penn. "Through television we assume that if a law firm has three or four names it's likely to be a good one. And which one represents those kinds of cases takes a little bit of deliberation amongst the group. And so we lock in on Rita Harrison's firm and I go up and ask her to represent the case."

Academy Award nominee Michelle Pfeiffer plays Rita Harrison, a driven lawyer who initially resists taking on such a long-shot case. "Sam sees Rita as the hero that can get his daughter back for him," says Penn. "She's a big time lawyer. And she talks fast. That seems important."

But Rita ultimately takes the challenge on a dare to prove to her co-workers that she will work a pro bona case. Says Pfeiffer, "Rita goes into it for all the wrong reasons, and I think once you enter the enormous heart of these people and their lives, you can't help but be touched and become invested. And that's what happens to her."

Through her work with Sam, Rita begins to explore his role as Lucy's parent, and comes to understand how even someone like her, who is considered normal by societal standards, can be daunted by the challenges of parenthood. "She has gotten so trapped by her trappings," says Pfeiffer. "She has too many machines, too many gizmos, too many appointments and this overwhelming obsession to be perfect. She is so cut off from her heart in the beginning, one of these people who has to keep moving because if they stay in one place for too long, God forbid, somebody should make them feel something."

"Rita needs to be tough and well put together, but below the surface she is fragile and vulnerable," says producer Richard Solomon. "This film is about the journey that she takes and what a profound and lasting impact Sam has on her life."

Sam is aided in his quest by his neighbor Annie, an agoraphobic pianist played by Academy Award winner Dianne Wiest,