Review of I Am Sam (2001) by Cynthia O — 12 Mar 2011

Re-watched it recently. really like how it started out - the attention to details, say basing scenes on Beatle's songs and trivia, choosing THE book with the highest Flesch readibility grade - Green Egg and Ham by Dr. Seuss as Sam's signature read, and Sam's fixation with order and predictabiliy etc.

Perhaps I watched it back when I was less critical as a kid, and perhaps was emotionally fragile while re-watching it recenlty - despite being a jaded viewer, I still find certain scenes touching the soft spots deep down.

Am let down by the 2nd half of the movie. sam at the sidebar with those too-perfect-to-be-reality rhetoric is still fine. really dislike how Rita was so miraculously transformed and felt for sam. and the film drags on for too long. would be great if it ends at the point when he lost the case, then went visiting Lucy on her birthday at the foster parents'. but i'd like to keep the line "you're the red in her painting" from the otherwise cliched final act.

The acting's good for all parts. the screenwriter is to be blamed sigh.