|
Cast:
| Sean Penn ( Sam
Dawson) |
Dakota Fanning (Lucy Diamond
Dawson) |
| Loretta Devine (Margaret
Calgrove) |
Richard Schiff
(Turner) |
| Laura Dern (Randy
Carpenter) |
Mary Steenburgen (Doctor
Blake) |
| Stanley DeSantis
(Robert) |
Doug Hutchison
(Ifty) |
| Michelle Pfeiffer (Rita Harrison
) |
Dianne Wiest
(Annie) |
| Rosalind Chao (Lily) |
Screenplay & Direction: Jessie Nelson |
 Story:
Sam Dawson (Sean Penn) is mentally challenged with the maturity of a seven-year-old according to the doctors. He works at Starbucks and lives in an apartment in the bustling city of Los Angeles. He names his daughter Lucy Diamond to honor the Beatles. With the help of his mentally challenged friends and his neighbour Annie (Dianne Wiest), he manages to live with Lucy despite his obvious weakness. Lucy loves her father but unfortunately the state thinks she is his equal in age. Lucy rebels against her father because of the snide comments about him at her school and finally a nasty scene at her birthday party which is unfortunately witnessed by a social worker.
Rita Harrison (Michelle Pfeiffer) enters the scene here as Sam manages to persuade her to help him in getting Lucy back. Rita takes the case as a Pro Bono (she is almost conned into it by Sam!). Rita has her own problems, however, and begins to realize that Sam is actually much more intelligent than he is given credit and learns valuable lessons from him in parenting. In the end she manages to enlist the support of Sam's friends and they convince the judge to return Lucy to him.
Review:
What a terrific movie this is! It could have a become a messy tear-jerker, but director Jessie Nelson utilizes the histrionic
ability of Sean Penn, Dakota Fanning and Michelle Pfeiffer brilliantly. He has handled the script, story and the actors very skillfully to turn out one of the finest heart-wrenching movies ever.
To begin with, Pfeiffer hardly seems to put in any effort to portray a lawyer who turns from a cold, selfish person into a warm, caring human being. She has always been a natural and has come a long way from the bubbly star of "Grease 2".
 The movie is really about Sean Penn and Dakota Fanning. The chemistry between them is so good that you are
involuntarily reaching out to them all the time and hoping and praying that the state returns a favourable verdict for Sam. Comparisons are being made with Dustin Hoffman's 'Rain Man', but those are unfair. Penn has done a great job and deserves accolades in his own right. Fanning is simply superb as the 7-year-old and manages to steal your heart from early on.
The screenplay is very tight and manages to rise above the maudlin, always a danger in such movies. It provides the right fodder for the director and the actors.
This movie will knock your socks. It has a moral too. Don't mock at anything unless you have fully explored it. Pfeiffer learns this in the movie and manages to handle her own problems by seeing
Penn. Yet another must-see movie.
Final Score: Three and a Half out of Four Stars.
Sam Walker
published on 12th August 2002
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