Sam Dawson is a mentally-challenged father raising his daughter Lucy with the help of an extraordinary group of friends. As Lucy turns seven and begins to intellectually surpass her father, their close bond is threatened when their situation comes under the scrutiny of a social worker who wants Lucy placed in foster care.

Faced with a seemingly unwinnable case, Sam vows to fight the legal system and forms an unlikely alliance with Rita Harrison, a high-powered, self-absorbed attorney who initially takes his case pro bona as a challenge from her colleagues. On the surface the two couldn''t be further apart, but in reality they are subtly similar.

Sam''s compulsive nature is mirrored in Rita''s more socially acceptable obsessive-compulsive nature. Together they struggle to convince the system that Sam deserves to get his daughter back and, in the process, fuse a bond that results in a unique testament to the power of unconditional love.

Directed by
Jessie Nelson

Cast
Sean Penn - Sam Dawson
Michelle Pfeiffer - Rita Harrison
Dakota Fanning - Lucy Diamond Dawson
Dianne Wiest - Annie
Loretta Devine - Margaret Calgrove
Richard Schiff - Turner
Laura Dern - Randy Carpenter
Mary Steenburgen - Doctor Blake
Brad Allan - Silverman Brad
Joseph Rosenberg - Joe
Stanley DeSantis - Robert

Production Co.
Bedford Falls Company
Red Fish
Blue Fish Films
"Sam" Filmproductions
Avery Pix

Produced by
Claire Rudnick Polstein
Michael de Luca
David Scott Rubin

Studio
New Line Records

Writer
Jessie Nelson
Kristine Johnson

Music
Hans Zimmer