Week 34 – I Am Sam (2001)

• I Am Sam
• Released: 12/3/2001
• Starring: Sean Penn, Michelle Pfeiffer, Dakota Fanning, Dianne Wiest, Loretta Devine, Richard Schiff, Laura Dern
• Director: Jessie Nelson
• IMDB Page

Welcome back to 52 Films, 52 Portraits! This week’s film was chosen by one of my good friends from all the way back in High School, Nia! Nia works and lives in Birmingham, AL. She is one of the most driven people I know, and, like me, has a passion for film and entertainment in general, so I was really looking forward to hearing all of her thoughts. She did not disappoint!

High School friends! Blair (coming up in a future week), myself, Nia and Michael! All gathered for Ashley‘s wedding a few years ago.

Nia had a ton of thoughts to share, not just on the movie that she finally decided to choose, but also on films in general, including a huge number of her favorite films from throughout her life.

She told me that although she considers herself to be a huge fan of film, she would actually say that her love of them has decreased in recent years as her love of television has grown. Nowadays she is more likely to be drawn in by a great show, but she still has a soft spot for a great movie. She told me that one of the main reasons that she has always considered film to be an amazing storytelling device is its capacity to pair the visual of the story with the perfect music. Whether it be score or soundtrack, the best pairings can enhance the moment in a way that the written word cannot. She noted that books have their own special ways of getting into a character’s head that films can’t touch, but the visual effects allowed by film just create an entirely different experience. She added that being able to see the story unfold in front of her is often more relatable for her, because that is how she experiences the world. She said that the most important thing to her about watching a film is the emotional effect that it has on her. She loves how a film can transport you and make you feel so many different emotions just from sitting down and watching for a couple of hours.

When I asked Nia about films that made a big impression on her when she was young, she was able to rattle off quite a few. She told me that some of her earliest, and most favorite, film memories involved the classic films Gone With the Wind and The Sound of Music. She remembers loving the romance and drama of Gone with the Wind and the music of The Sound of Music from a very early age. When she was around Middle School aged, she fell in love with the film Brown Sugar, which she says combined her favorite things about the previous two films, but “put it in a modern and ‘black’ context.” She loved that it used music so heavily in the background to elevate the story and loved the love story at the center of the plot. She was also a huge fan of Center Stage, because she spent a so much time dancing at the time (10+ hours a week) and it was all about the life of young dancers. Other films that she mentioned loving growing up included the John Hughes classics Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, The Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles, the Denzel Washington flicks Remember the Titans, John Q and The Preacher’s Wife and the Albert Finney “Christmas Carol” adaptation, Scrooge. She added that she can remember her mother showing her and her brother films to “teach us lessons” when they were growing up. These included Twister when they moved to Alabama to teach her about the perils of tornadoes and Riding in Cars with Boys and Where the Heart Is to scare her about teenage pregnancy. Of course she ended up loving all of those films as well, so she was fine with it.

Nia said that now that she is older she enjoys just about every genre – except horror. Her favorites, though, are dramas, well done romances, and anything thought-provoking. She added that there aren’t really many actors/directors/etc that generally draw her to a film, because she finds that it varies from film to film. She may love an actor in one film, but be disappointed in their work afterward. It all depends “on how well they pull off the next storyline.”

When I asked Nia to talk about other films that she considered naming for this project, I knew that I was in for a long answer. I can remember when she was trying to narrow down her list to pick a movie at the beginning of this project, and it took her much longer than others to decide, because she just had so many great films that meant a lot to her to choose from. I will just give a brief rundown of some of the films that that she considered.

• The Social Network – She said that she loved Aaron Sorkin’s script and the snappy dialogue so much that she could just read the script and still love it.
• Love and Basketball – For her money, this is the best film when it comes to pairing a story with a soundtrack to enhance the experience.
• Memento – She loves the plot and originality of the way the story is told. She loves to introduce others to this one just so that she can see how they react to all of the twists.
• The Dark Knight – Her love for this one is basically summed up by five words: Heath Ledger as the Joker.
• The Notebook – Possibly her favorite stand-alone romance film with a great plot. It just made her feel so many emotions.
• The Departed – Another one that she just loved the premise behind, and loved watching it all play out.
• Inception – Like Memento, she loved this one for how complex the idea behind it was and how well it was pulled off. Plus, she loves the cast.
• Additionally, she listed My Sister’s Keeper, Good Will Hunting, Clueless, Juno, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Easy A and Dreamgirls.

When the subject turned to the film that she ultimately chose, I Am Sam, she unsurprisingly had a lot of thoughts to share on it as well. And I was very excited to hear them. She told me that she decided on I Am Sam, for a number of reasons. Logistically, she wanted to pick something that she didn’t think someone else would pick, and that would speak to me as the viewer. She said that when she recommends movies to people, she likes to chose ones that she thinks will resonate with that particular person. The thing that eventually caused this film to rise above the rest for this project was that it combines a number of things that, to her, make a great film. The soundtrack – featuring original covers of Beatles songs – fits perfectly with the scenes in the film, while actually connecting to the plot of the film and the main character’s love of the Beatles, as well. She said that it also features an incredible cast. She loved the way that Michelle Pfeiffer and Sean Penn’s characters played off of each other and how they were juxtaposed against each other. However, the stand out performance – and the one she always thinks of in regards to the film – was the young star, Dakota Fanning. Nia pointed out that when the film was released, she was only around 13 years old, so she was much closer in age to Dakota Fanning’s character, which allowed her to relate to her so much more. She really felt Fanning’s inner conflict of loving her father so much but also being embarrassed and ashamed of him. She also loved Annie, Dianne Wiest’s character, who literally stepped out of her comfort zone to help her friends in the end.

I have to admit that I wasn’t sure what to expect when it came time to sit down to watch this week’s film. I don’t think that I had ever seen it before (although some small bits seemed familiar – maybe I just saw the trailer or something a lot), but I knew a bit about the film. I knew that Sean Penn played someone with a learning disability, but actually, I guess that’s about all that I knew. Based on that, I expected a very heavy film. It was definitely heavy, but not nearly as much as I expected. Sean Penn was able to put so much heart and optimism into his performance that you were able to root for him without feeling too hopeless for his character for pretty much the entire film.

Additionally, the fun of the soundtrack allowed you to enjoy other parts of the film as you followed the plot in a pretty unique way. I loved hearing all of the covers for the film and would love to check out the soundtrack. According to Wikipedia, Sean Penn himself commissioned many of the artists to do their covers. It was a pretty brilliant way of working in the music with the plot and characters of the film.

Like Nia, I was very impressed with Dakota Fanning’s performance in the film. She did an amazing job, and at such a young age! She was really able to capture the struggle that her character was going through. You could see what was going on in her character’s head just by looking into her eyes. So impressive! Sean Penn’s performance was also pretty incredible, and I loved seeing favorites like Dianne Wiest and Richard Schiff (during his West Wing days, no less) in the film, as well.

Overall, I ended up enjoying the film much more than I expected to. It was an affecting drama that was also fun and very creative in its musical choices. I was definitely glad to have seen it, and I loved getting to hear all of Nia’s thoughts. I loved how passionate you could tell she is about this subject, and that’s something that I both relate to and appreciate!

Thanks for joining me for this extra long week of 52 Films, 52 Portraits! Please comment, like, follow below! See you next week!

Next Week: Inception