Tuesday, October 12, 2010

I AM SAM (2001)

Runningtime: 2hr 13min
Genre: Drama
Language: English

Description:
What defines a parent? Is it the amount of intellectual maturity displayed or the level of love given? Such is the question posed in I Am Sam.

In the film, Sam Dawson (Sean Penn) is a mentally challenged single father raising his daughter Lucy (Dakota Fanning). Sam is a sweet, good-natured man who earns a living by sweeping up at a local coffee store. His mental capacity is that of a seven-year-old, and as his daughter turns seven, she begins to intellectually outgrow her father. Soon, their lives come under the scrutiny of a social worker, who, “for the good of the child,” wants Lucy placed into foster care.

Faced with a nearly impossible-to-win case, Sam decides to fight the legal system by finding a good attorney. Sam has learned from television that all the best attorney have four names, so with the help of his equally mentally disabled friends, they use a phone book to find a long-named, high-powered lawyer (Michelle Pfeiffer) who ends up taking Sam’s case at no charge on a dare. Together, they struggle to convince the system that Sam deserves to get his daughter back.

Writer/director Jessie Nelson, whose previous writing credit include The Story of Us and Stepmom, opts to flex some creative muscle with her first directing credit by shooting almost the entire film using hand-held cameras. This technique can work to give the viewer a more subjective sense of participation with the film. However, when overdone, it becomes distracting. For the most part, Nelson is able to keep this style in check, but there occasionally the jerky NYPD Blue style zooms made me more dizzy than engrossed.

In the film, Sam names his daughter Lucy Diamond after the Beatles song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” and he possesses an almost Rain Man-like knowledge of Beatles trivia. Naturally, the Beatles play a prominent role in the soundtrack, but because of rights issues, the music is comprised of contemporary artists doing their own renditions of Beatles classics. The resulting soundtrack -- performed by artists such as Sheryl Crow, Ben Harper, and Sarah MacLachlan -- is definitely worth picking up if you're a fan of the Fab Four.

There are many great acting performances in this film, but the shining star is without a doubt Sean Penn. In order to ensure he was true to the character, Penn spent time with the Los Angeles-based L.A. Goal, a non-profit organization that helps adults with developmental disabilities. The result is an astounding performance that clearly shows Penn’s dedication to the art of acting. His work is honest, insightful, and compassionate, and it may very well be the film that finally gets Penn that shining gold statuette he rightly deserves.

Plenty of extras on the DVD for I Am Sam, and if you can stomach Penn's hamminess in the movie, you might enjoy the extra scenes of Sam, say, counting down the floors of a descending elevator or dancing or telling knock-knock jokes. As well, a feature commentary is unable to excuse the nauseating "verite" style filmmaking that saddles the film.

Huraian:

Cerita ni takde la berat sangat. santai tapi mendalam. movie ni mengisahkan seorang bapak (sam) yang terencat akal berusaha untuk membesarkan anak dia (lucy), lakonan dakota fanning yang cute gila babi. kalau dia nak kapel dengan gua, gua tak payah pikir lama. gua sambar je. tapi nak ke dia? cerita gua dengan dakota fanning ni pun boleh difilemkan kan? wakakakak.
konflik citer ni adalah apabila jabatan kebajikan masyarakat terpaksa mengambil lucy kerana tak percaya dengan kemampuan sam untuk jaga anak dia. cerita ni mengingatkan gua dengan video klip ‘animal instinct’ dari cranberries.
itu je jalan cerita dia, tapi apa yang membuatkan dia menarik? keberkesanan perwatakan sam dan lucy dalam cerita ni. terbaik dan superb! mereka akan membuatkan lu berfikir tentang kasih sayang, tentang kemanusiaan dan sebagainya. dan yang pasti akan membuatkan lu menangis.
gua? hahahaha. rabak menangis. serioushit! klu lu menangis tgk citer ni, itu maknanya lu normal. ok? normal! :D
cerita ni lebih menarik apabila si sam ni adalah peminat fanatik the beatles. nama lucy pun di ambil sempena lagu the beatles ‘lucy in the sky with diamond’. oleh itu cerita-cerita ni sarat dengan lagu the beatles yang tak berapa mainstream. i mean lagu-lagu yang jarang bermain di media massa.
then diselitkan juga beberapa fakta menarik tentang the beatles dalam cerita ni. antaranya jawapan sam bila ditanya adakah dia mampu menjaga lucy atau tak? dia pun jawab,

“People think..that George Harrison (Guitarist for The Beatles) couldn’t..maybe, he couldn’t write a song. But then he wrote “Here Comes the Sun” and that it was one of the best songs on “Abbey Road.”

dan

“daddy, are ladybugs only girls or are there boys too? and if there are, what are they called?”-lucy
“yeah, the beatles!”-sam

Overall, filem arahan Jessie Nelson ni memang cukup touching. Memang memenuhi kriteria sebagai filem terbaik sepanjang zaman.

Trailer:

Download:

http://www.warez-files.com/show-i-am-sam.html

Or torrent:

http://www.torrentz.com/e19eb844f802f71daa5a31dfb9e5168337f9aa30

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