What does it take to be a good parent? How do you raise your child and teach it to be compassionate, smart, ambitious, but also loving, carrying and good hearted? And what challenge is that when you are below the average when it comes to intelligence? This movie gets to deal with all those questions and it can sometimes be a bit heartbreaking when it comes to answering them. The story begins with Sam Dawson (Sean Penn), who is a mentally retarded person. He works at the Starbucks and is doing the most basic jobs there. At one point, his boss fires him. After that, there is a part where Sam runs across the city, chases the buses only to end up coming to the hospital in time. That is where we see his pregnant wife getting into labour and giving birth. After giving a birth to a baby girl, woman wants nothing to do with Sam and leaves both him and their baby. From that point on, Sam takes care of the girl along with four of his also mentally retarded friends. He names the baby girl Lucy Diamond Dawson (Dakota Fanning), after his favourite Beatles song. After several years, Lucy Diamond is 6 years old and Sam gets accidentally arrested. That causes another series of unfortunate events, since the social service establishes that he can no longer be Lucy's guardian and they are taking her away. Somehow Sam manages to talk one of the best lawyers Rita Harrison (Michelle Pfeiffer) into doing his case pro bono. And his fight for custody over Lucy begins.
Jason Segel collects puppets
