Sean Penn may be the most gifted actor of his generation. He has been showered with comparisons to Brando, Clift, Nicholson and others and yet he continues to repeat threats to “retire” from acting completely. Instead, Penn wants to direct focusing on quirky, original fare like this year’s Nicholson drama The Pledge.

Well, let’s hope that this threat remains a hollow one. Once more Penn shows what all the fuss is about in I Am Sam, a potentially maudlin courtroom drama that somehow bursts through as one of the better films of the year.

Penn is Sam Dawson, a handicapped man who has never mentally matured past the age of seven. Holding a job at a local Starbucks, he maintains a life of quietly detailed order that helps him get through the day. He and his circle of friends have orderly get-togethers such as Wednesday movie nights or Thursday morning breakfasts at I-Hop.

This all changes when Sam becomes a father. Faced with responsibilities even the most experienced adult has troubles with, his orderly and structured life is thrown into the hyperbolic chaos that a child can bring. But with the help of his reclusive next-door neighbor Annie (Diane Wiest) and an endless supply of love, Sam learns to be a supremely nurturing father to his little girl, named innocently after a favorite Beatles song.

Kids, however, don’t follow routine very well. It’s in their nature to grow and evolve thus being the case with Lucy (Dakota Fanning). Like any child, questions are the name of the game and sooner or later she’s going to ask the one question Sam doesn’t want to hear – “You’re not like other Daddies, are you Daddy?” With that question, it becomes clear to both parent and child that their relationship has begun to change in irrevocable ways.

More so than they anticipate, as the child welfare office deems Sam an unfit parent and takes Lucy away from him, devastating his emotional balance. Sam’s friends decide that what is needed to get Lucy back into her father’s loving arms is a lawyer. Using the most scientific method they can think of – namely looking for the biggest ad in the yellow pages – they go about finding him one.

Enter Rita Harrison (Michelle Pfeiffer), a big-time lawyer who only seems to care only about her own success and wants nothing to do with Sam’s case. But to look better in the eyes of her colleagues she reluctantly agrees to take charge of Sam’s appeal to regain custody of Lucy. Yet Rita’s own personal life is a mess. She has a child who can’t stand her, a marriage that is falling apart and her co-workers think she’s a selfish witch. Through helping Sam she might find redemption in her own life, something the high-strung Rita never imagined.

I Am Sam has movie of the week written all over it. It’s also a textbook case of Oscar baiting what with a high profile, well respected actor playing a mentally handicapped character in a highly sentimental melodrama.

Damned if the whole thing doesn’t work despite all of this. Penn may be playing just the type of character Oscar loves, but don’t hold that against him. This is a fiery, complex performance and one of the more brutally honest depictions of mental illness the screen has seen. Penn’s portrayal is free of the general tics and gestures that most actors employ when diving into such parts, and his style is so loose and natural it’s easy to forgive the film when it treads into more treacle-ridden territory. liuxuepaper.com