A maximum tearjerker that adroitly uses the undisguised emotions of the mentally challenged to tell a clear, stripped-down story about the love between a father and his child. That this film's emotionally manipulative premise and an often-contrived screenplay manage to succeed as powerful drama is due mostly to a pair of unflinchingly honest performances by Sean Penn, as a single father with the IQ of a seven-year-old, and Michelle Pfeiffer, as the brutally self-centered L.A. lawyer shamed into representing him pro bono when the State tries to take away his daughter. Sam Dawson (Penn) is a high-functioning, mentally disabled man who takes drink orders at a well-known...
Released:
2001
Rated:
PG-13
Length:
n/a