Clemente, Christen Jayna D.

FILM REVIEW #5 - I Am Sam

I Am Sam (2001) is a film about an intellectually disabled single father named Sam

Dawson fighting for rights to his daughter Lucy. As seen in the movie, Sam has a mental age

akin to his daughter, who is seven years old. In spite of it all, he manages to get a job and raise

her with the help of his friends, who to some degree, are as disabled as he is. However, as she

grows older and begins to surpass even her father’s mental capabilities, the state steps in. It takes

Lucy away, deeming Sam unfit to raise her. After seeking out a lawyer and holding a trial to keep

his parental rights, Lucy convinces Sam to help her get out of foster care, to which he responds

by getting a new job. During the trial, however, he breaks down, leading Lucy to be given to a

foster family, who Lucy runs away from. In the end, the foster family realizes Sam’s love for

Lucy and lets him have custody of her.

As I had mentioned in the first paragraph, Sam has an intellectual disability. An

intellectual disability, according to the World Health Organization (n.d.), is defined as a

significant reduction in intelligence and social functioning. While Sam is shown to be relatively

adaptive, seeing as he was still able to get a job, albeit in fast food chains only, he still seems to

have trouble communicating with people other than his daughter, and has a tendency to pull out

quotes in order to convey his thoughts. At times, the passages he responds with do not even

make sense in the context of a scene. He is also shown to express his emotions in outbursts, in

the same manner that a child would. He has difficulty reading some words and has a stammer,

further proving that he is intellectually disabled not only in one sense of the phrase but both. The

movie leads me to believe that what Sam has is not simply mental retardation, but autism

specifically. He exhibits a phenomenon called hyperfixation, which commonly appears in

neurodivergent people [i.e. people diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and

attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)], that is defined as a state of intense

concentration dedicated to a task or object that a neurodivergent person finds enjoyable

(Fourman, 2018). In Sam’s case, this would be the Beatles, as he names Lucy after the title of a

Beatles song, dresses up as McCartney for her school Halloween party, and repeatedly says the

phrase “John wanted to try new things,” assumingly referring to John Lennon. He also has a

fixation on perfection and organization that people more closely associated with

obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), though it is also something autistic people experience.

Based on my observations, there was a lot of prejudice against persons with disability or

PWDs like Sam in the film. There was a scene in the film when kids at Lucy’s school began to

call Sam a “retard.” The term “retard” is a commonly used slur or derogatory term directed at

mentally challenged people, such as those who are diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder

(ASD) or those who have experienced age regression as a result of post-traumatic stress disorder

(PTSD), presumably derived from the phrase “mental retardation.” Aside from the bullying, the

system arguably was also prejudiced against him. Instead of providing him with the help that he

needs with raising her, which ultimately will benefit both him and Lucy, the state rather takes her

away than keep her with her biological father simply because he is incapacitated. They even

mention that they “are worried about what happens when Lucy turns eight.” Moreover, there was

pressure in the courtroom scene, where Sam quoted a film but had it backfire on him. Using the

quote against him, the prosecutor pressured Sam into agreeing to give Lucy away. The foster

mother also referred to Lucy as “her” daughter in front of Sam, even after knowing that he had

brought her back to the foster family’s home from his, and also knowing that he is her biological

father. She also shunned his advice on how to help her fall asleep, saying that they would be fine
and “that he should go home.” This is presumably because she did not think much of what he

was saying, which is again because of his disability. I find that a little strange considering that

they know he raised her for seven years.

Despite the backlash, the strange looks, and the odds that are stacked against him, he

managed to do all that he did because he wanted what was best for his daughter. He kept

working, even though he only had low-income jobs. Even if he was not earning much from his

jobs, he did all that he could to make her feel like a normal kid, letting her attend school, buying

her gifts, and taking her out to places like parks and restaurants. He built a support system with

other adaptive autistic men, who helped him when Lucy needs something, as exhibited in the

shoe shopping scene, where they all gave suggestions and contributed money for her school

shoes. He even befriended his neighbor Annie, whose name was Lucy’s first word, and asked her

to help take care of Lucy whenever he was not around. He looked for a lawyer so that he could

fight to keep her, for the sake of both of them; though, granted it was on his friends’ advice.

Despite his disability, he held his hopes and dreams high, and he persevered. He always went out

of his way to make sure she felt loved by him.

I think it was a great detail that Sam had a few people to fall back on when he did not

have a lot. Firstly, as I had mentioned, he had a friend group that consisted of other people like

him. I figured that it was important that the people in that support group were also autistic as it

would mean that the advice he received from them would be genuine because they all would

have come from similar experiences. Secondly, he also had Annie, his next-door neighbor. To

some degree, she was also incapacitated because she had agoraphobia or the fear of large crowds.

Nonetheless, she somehow also helped him raise Lucy by acting as a mother figure of sorts to

her. Lastly, he had Rita Harrison, his pro bono lawyer. Though hesitant at first, she helped Sam
fight against Child Services for his right to take care of Lucy. In the end, the foster family

became a part of his support system as well, offering a proper mother figure to Lucy. Apart from

those four main support systems, though, there was barely anything else. While Rita mentioned

that the court “favors reunification,” it was the court that failed to favor Sam and got him and

Lucy separated in the first place, all because of a prejudiced prosecutor convincing Sam that he

is incapable of taking care of his daughter.

The message I got from the film was that anyone is capable of love, and that love can go

a long way. It is one of the most notable quotes in the film: “all you need is love.” Like many

people have said though, this passage does not mean that love alone can pay the bills or get

custody of your child back. Rather, it means that love prevails. Even if you feel as if you are

helpless or broken, you are both deserving and capable of love. When you raise someone right,

surrounded with love, it will show. We see in the movie that Sam is very capable of love. He

loves his daughter Lucy so much that, despite what everyone thinks about him, he continues to

do things for her. Even though he knows that other people might not believe in him and might

even insult him and that he, too, doubts his own abilities, he still holds his head high and pushes

through it. He is very selfless in that sense. He can even empathize pretty well. Even when he

had his own prejudice against abled people, assuming that they had neither feelings nor

suffering, he consoled Rita the second she explained her situation and even gave her advice on

how to deal with both her husband and her son. He got the “cold-hearted” Rita to realize she can

fix what went wrong and love again. When Annie is called to the witness stand, she says that

Lucy is the way she is because Sam raised her well. For one, he does not intentionally hold her

back; in fact, it is Lucy herself who holds back for fear of losing touch with her father because he

cannot do the things that she can. Instead, he encourages her, telling her that it makes him happy
that she is learning and reading even the difficult words that he cannot say. She comes to the

conclusion that Lucy is not smart despite Sam and his disability, rather, she is smart because of

him.

I am a PWD, but I am not mentally challenged, so I cannot really comment on the

accuracy. However, I do know a few people with autism, and they behave similarly to Sam, the

only difference being that they are younger than him. Based on my observation and perception of

the film, I think Penn’s performance as Sam Dawson in the movie was close to the real thing.

Though others would find it problematic that he pulled off that role as a conventionally abled

person, I found his depiction of a neurodivergent person to be almost flawless. Besides this, the

film also cast actual PWDs in other key roles, so I believe this film is a good representation.

I resonated particularly with the feeling of insecurity. There definitely were times when I

had thoughts of not being good enough to do certain things, or thoughts of others thinking that I

am not good enough to do certain things. I felt as if I had just lucked out getting to where I was. I

have heard that this phenomenon is referred to as “internalized oppression,” which is, as defined

by Reiser & Mason (1990/1992) as “seeing that one group of people are valued more [...], and

wanting to become like them” (p. 1). That part of the film where Sam was convinced that he was

not good enough to take care of Lucy and then broke down because of that felt scarily accurate.

For a while, I had self-esteem issues related to my visual disability. I had gotten my fair

share of weird looks from other people and bullies, too. In elementary school, my classmates

would even scare me and make fun of me for being jumpy, knowing I could not see them due to

a limited peripheral vision. There was also a period of time when I thought I looked weird

because the eye prosthetic I wore sometimes made my eyes look asymmetrical. I developed a

habit of overthinking things and feared public speaking.

 However, I have looked past all of these things by now. I began working on getting over

my fears little by little. I have been taught that all of my accomplishments and talents are

compensation enough for my one physical imperfection. Like Sam, I know that I should keep my

dreams high and work hard, not just to prove to the world, but also to my younger self, that I am

capable even though I am disabled.

 References

Fourman, M. (2018). Hyperfixation - What it is, what causes it, and how to overcome it. Oxford

Specialist Tutors Online.

https://oxfordspecialisttutors.com/hyperfixation-definitive-guide/#:~:text=Definition%20

of%20Hyperfixation%3A&text=An%20intense%20state%20of%20concentration,hyperfi

xation%20state%2C%20task%20performance%20improves

Reiser, R., and Mason, M. (eds) (1992). Disability equality in education. ILEA.

http://worldofinclusion.com/res/deinclass/text_only.pdf

Nelson, J. [Director]. (2001). I am Sam [Film]. New Line Cinema.

World Health Organization. (n.d.). Definition: Intellectual disability.

https://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/noncommunicable-diseases/mental-health/new

s/news/2010/15/childrens-right-to-family-life/definition-intellectual-disability#:~:text=Int

ellectual%20disability%20means%20a%20significantly,a%20lasting%20effect%20on%2

0development