I Am Sam

Another contrived look at modern family matters from the director of Corrina, Corrina, this immediately set off alarm bells, if not for the sight of Penn finding fulfilment at work in the local Starbucks, then for the spectacle of him playing a man with a mental age of seven. Fathering a daughter by a homeless woman who immediately scarpers, Sam raises young Lucy solo until some years later the authorities decides to resettle Lucy with a family in which she won't have to play the grown-up. Looking for a legal advocate, Sam somehow makes his way to self-absorbed fancy attorney Rita Harrison (Pfeiffer). It's grand that Hollywood wants to tell stories of the handicapped, but the sentimental rhetoric it customarily chooses patronises everyone. This is no exception.