I Am Sam
New Line Cinema | Release Date: December 28, 2001 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
28
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 33 Critic Reviews
Positive:
6
Mixed:
8
Negative:
19
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Not about the justice or injustice of the legal system. Rather it's about the tragedy of Sam's predicament. Read full review
75
New York PostLou Lumenick
Penn makes us take the leap required by Kristine Johnson and Jessie Nelson's screenplay -- you end up deeply caring about Sam and Lucy. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
A warm, hard-to-resist story. Read full review
70
TV Guide MagazineFrank Lovece
Penn's stark and unvarnished portrait of the challenged Sam makes even the hardest-to-swallow plot acceptable. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
The role sounds like a sentimental trap, but Penn doesn't fall into it. It's a sensational performance, and he illumines a movie that sometimes seems in danger of descending into modish Hollywood political correctness. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeJay Carr
Ham-handedly manipulative film. Read full review
50
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
The cancer of dishonesty begins to grow half an hour into the film, and it riddles the picture by the end. Read full review
50
SlateDavid Edelstein
Just don't believe the anti-hype. There are lots of reasons to have a good cry these days -- here's a nice, warm place to get squeezed. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The kind of performance Penn delivers in I Am Sam, which may look hard, is easy, compared, say, to his amazing work in Woody Allen's "Sweet and Lowdown." Read full review
42
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
I can imagine the pitch meeting: "It's 'Kramer vs. Kramer' meets 'Forrest Gump.' No, wait, 'Rainman' has a baby!" Read full review
42
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
The dumbing down of low-IQ sentimentality. Read full review
40
TimeRichard Corliss
As the director of this noble weepie, Nelson so overuses visual tricks -- zooms, zip pans and multiple perspectives on a simple scene -- that she turns the viewer into an exasperated parent; this is a directorial style in need of a spanking.
40
L.A. WeeklyF. X. Feeney
By-the-numbers Oscar bait -- but Penn does manage, against such odds, to make us see Sam as a person, not a performance. Read full review
40
The New York TimesDana Stevens
Not a bad movie, and its intentions are unimpeachable. But its sentimentality is so relentless and its narrative so predictable that the life is very nearly squeezed out of it. Read full review
38
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
The film's one realistic performance is that of Dakota Fanning as Lucy, whose child's shame, fear and resourcefulness ground the movie in recognizable behavior. She breathes air into this suffocating enterprise.
38
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
There's only one excuse for the sentimental and ham-handed I Am Sam, and it's not to tout the rights of the mentally disabled.
33
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
This isn't an ordinary film built on a remarkable performance; it's a poor one with a gem at its core. Penn can elevate it to mediocrity, but he cannot make it fly. Read full review
30
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Contrived, manipulative and shamelessly sentimental, this film is notable for the courageous reach of Sean Penn, who gives a bold, heartfelt performance. Read full review
30
Washington PostRita Kempley
Well-intentioned but ludicrous tale. Read full review
30
Chicago ReaderLisa Alspector
It’s a heart-tugging scenario undermined by a striking hypocrisy: obscuring a hot-button issue in casting, some actors with Down's syndrome have minor roles, while Penn plays the lead -- and chews the scenery. Read full review
30
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
I Am Sam is about as connected to the real world as Dr. Seuss's Green Eggs and Ham, from which its title is derived -- in fact, in the realism department, Seuss may have the edge. Read full review
30
The New YorkerDavid Denby
Pfeiffer, enormously likable in the role, almost saves the movie. [28 Jan 2002, p. 90]
25
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
It's a difficult issue, one that is not well served by a hollow confection like I Am Sam. Read full review
25
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
The film is so busy that every minute is exhausting. It's as if the filmmakers were idealistic teen-agers afflicted with a group case of Attention Deficit Disorder. Read full review
25
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
The film means well, but each scene gets clobbered by sappy screenwriting. Read full review
25
USA TodayMike Clark
Drawn out and dishonest in equal measure, Sam fights it out with "The Majestic" for the title of worst "important" movie of the year. Read full review
20
Washington PostDesson Thomson
The movie that Disney uses to explore this premise drips with so much corporate good-neighbor syrup, you might want to wear something waterproof. And Penn's performance is, at best, ripe for discussion. Read full review
20
Film ThreatRon Wells
Is this what Sean Penn has come to in his 40s? He hasn't appeared this retarded since he was married to Madonna. Read full review
10
VarietyRobert Koehler
An especially insipid example of the Hollywood message movie. Read full review
10
New Times (L.A.)Robert Wilonsky
In one of the year's most woefully manipulative and oppressively pandering offerings: I Am Sam, a dolled-up TV movie-of-the-week masquerading as profound cinema. Read full review
0
SalonCharles Taylor
Penn's portrayal strikes me as equally insensitive. It's the nightmare performance of 2001. Read full review
0
Village VoiceMichael Atkinson
Actual concussive cranial abuse would be preferable to Jessie Nelson's I Am Sam. Read full review
0
Austin ChronicleSteve Davis
It's a bad movie that only a parent could love. Read full review
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