All You Need Is Love

I Am Sam is a movie about a mentally handicapped father named Sam and his struggle to keep custody of the love of his life, his daughter Lucy. Lucy and Sam were abandoned by Lucy's mother upon her birth, and fought from day one to stay together, despite everyone telling them they couldn't make it.

For all that Sam lacks due to his mental handicap, he makes up for in the love for his daughter. In relating the relationship between Sam and Lucy to Ainsworth's stages of attachment, it is clear that Lucy is securely attached to Sam. Many people in Sam's life, including child services, try to argue that because of his handicap Sam cannot provide Lucy with the adequate tools to be successful and thrive in her development. Although it is true that Sam's mental capacity prevents him from being able to answer Lucy's complex questions or challenge her to think outside the box, his ability to love her overcomes all of his deficits, and thus gives her a secure attachment. This attachment is clearly seen in Lucy, as she is completely comfortable venturing away from Sam and being independent becuase she knows he is a safe base to return to. Ainsworth argues that secure attachment is the most important part of a child's development, for it gives her a stable sense of self and security. Thus, although Sam does not have the "normal" functioning abilities of most parents, his ability to unconditionally love his daughter is really all she'll ever need.



Besides the love she gets from Sam, Lucy also gets an immense amount of love from her godmother, Annie. Annie lives down the hall from Sam, and is presented in the beginning of the film as an agoraphobic. Agoraphobia is defined as the fear of having a panic attack in a location where there is no safe escape. In severe cases, such as Annie's, the patient becomes confined to her home as she is too afraid to be in public at all. For Annie, home is her "safe place," and venturing out of that place produces more anxiety than she can handle on a day-to-day basis. In this scene, however, Annie shows her love for Sam and Lucy when she leaves her home for the first time in years to testify in court. The amount of anxiety Annie is facing is clear when she gets off of the elevator, as well as when she is sitting in the court room. She is shaking, stiff, and in a constant state of paranoia. Unlike Annie, most patients with severe cases of agoraphobia never leave their safe place. Luckily for Sam and Lucy, Annie faces her fear so as to prove to the court how much Sam and Lucy deserve to be together.



Throughout the entire movie, Sam's never-ending love for his daughter, his friends, and Annie especially seems to result in nothing but good things. Not only does he provide his daughter with a sense of emotional security, but he provides Annie a temporary "safe place" in the courtroom so that she can help Sam regain custody of Lucy. Maybe the Beatles had it right when they sang "all you need is love"