I Am Sam
Short description
Sam Dawson, a man with intellectual disabilities who works at a coffee shop, becomes the sole parent to his daughter Lucy after her mother leaves them. He raises her with the help of friends and neighbours, but when Lucy reaches the age of seven, her growing abilities begin to outpace his own, and social services move to place her in foster care. Determined to keep her, Sam approaches Rita Harrison, a busy and successful lawyer, who agrees to take his case without charging him.
Sean Penn plays Sam and Michelle Pfeiffer plays Rita, with Dakota Fanning as Lucy, Dianne Wiest as a neighbour, Richard Schiff as the opposing lawyer and Loretta Devine as a co-worker. The film was directed by Jessie Nelson, who wrote the screenplay with Kristine Johnson. It is her second feature as director, following Corrina, Corrina, and came before Love the Coopers. Edward Zwick, Marshall Herskovitz and Richard Solomon produced.
Made for 22 million dollars, the film took around 98 million dollars worldwide, a strong return on its budget. On IMDb it holds 7.6 out of 10 from about 162,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.6 out of 10 from roughly 2,600 votes. The critics' rating stands lower, at 5.3 out of 10 from 144 reviews, so audiences have responded considerably more warmly than reviewers.
What's left behind the scenes
- Three people with developmental disabilities played themselves in the film: Endri Stanley, Joseph Rosenberg, and Brian Bialik. They are members of an organization called L.A. GOAL (Los Angeles Goal), which works with people with developmental disabilities.
- Dakota Fanning's character is named Lucy Diamond after The Beatles' song ("Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"). Michelle Pfeiffer's character is named Rita Harrison (the name is a combination of the name from The Beatles' song "Lovely Rita" and the surname of George Harrison). Sam, Lucy, and Sam's friends cross the street holding balloons, which is a reference to the cover of The Beatles' album "Abbey Road" (1969). Sean Penn even wanted the entire film soundtrack to consist only of Beatles songs, but this did not happen due to the position of the copyright holders. Therefore, Penn turned to various performers with a request to do covers of these songs. All the covers were performed and recorded at the same tempo as the originals.
- New Line Cinema struggled for a long time to decide on a title for this film. Eventually, they settled on “I Am Sam,” which references Dr. Seuss’s book “Green Eggs and Ham.”
- Since the main character is a big fan of The Beatles, the soundtrack consists of songs by the Liverpool Four performed by today's musical stars, such as Nick Cave, Sarah McLachlan, Sheryl Crow, Eddie Vedder, “The Wallflowers,” and others.
Similar movies
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
