I Am Sam (Updated)

Anyone of you watched the movie?

I missed the movie when it was in the theatre last time. Tonight, I was able to sit through the entire movie (commerical-free, nonetheless... Thanks M1!) tonight and was glad that I did. Dakota Fanning was arresting as young Lucy, the daughter of Sam. I mean, really, this girl seem so mature in her acting. Sean Penn is just as good as Sam. He was very convincing in his role as the incidental father with a lower IQ.

I love the story. The beautiful relationship between the normal kid and her father who has a mental of a 7 year old. And Dakota Fanning... Man, I really love this kid. She was such a natural when depicting Lucy's close relationship with her father, protecting him from harm. And she has such mature affection for her father... She portrayed the role really well.

"All you need is love", that's the movie's subtle message. I am Sam.

I am Joyce. :)

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Some additions to the movie. I was far too tired last night...

1) In one scene, Michelle Pfeiffer (Rita), the lawyer of Sam, was trying to discuss Sam about how would she present Sam's personality in court. She threw out a few phrases to describe Sam's condition. All of them were describing Sam's condition mentally. Along the lines of retard, low IQ, etc etc... And she say, "I don't know what to call you."
And Sam said, "Sam. My name is Sam. Just call me Sam."
- So many times we treat or classify people with what they can do, or what they achieved. When often times, we fail to see that everyone is the same.

2) Nearing the end, Rita visited Sam, after Lucy was placed in the adopted home. Sam was building a wall, literally and metaphorically in his own home, attempting to encase himself in his own private corner. He told her that people like her live perfect lives, and wouldn't understand people like him.
Rita tore down the wall and told him that perfect people like her have problems too. And went on to tell him the problems she is going through. That action startled Sam. But they end up hugging each other anyway.
- It coincides with a thought I had this week. You know, we all are not perfect persons right? We all have problems. It doesn't mean that if your problem overwhelms you means that they are bigger problems than mine. I always remember a quote from Ally Mcbeal series:

Georgia Thomas: Ally, what makes your problems so much bigger than everybody else's?
Ally McBeal: They're mine.

(courtesy imdb.com)

That's a way of looking at it comically. But it reflects that alot of times, we think we are very, very unfortunate. My view is that we tend to be trapped in our own hole when we said that. We can only see what our eyes fall. But really, compared to injustice and sadness with other people from other parts of the world... we are still better.

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Call me positive or whatever. I still think that "things could be alot worse" (quote from Ever After). It's just that I see that no one's life is perfect. You have problems, He has problems, She has problems, They have problems, I have problems. EVERYONE in this imperfect world has problems. But there is no need to allow our problems to pull us down.

In these situations, the last thing we want to hear are patronising words to tell us that things will work out, God will make a way etc etc... Because they are ineffective and sometimes, even detrimental to the soul. But they are reminders that we need to keep ourselves above waters. If we let our problems continue to bring us down, down into the abyss, we will never be able to get out.

It's our own lives, our own decisions. We decide if we want to be happy in it, or not. We cannot move mountains, turn back time or zap irritating people out of our way. But we can make decisions that will get us away from the mountains, move on from the past or deal with the "irritating" in the people.

We will grow out of problems, one by one.