History Film / IAmSam

* YoureNotMyFather: Embarrassed by her father's behavior, Lucy tells her friends at school that she's adopted. It comes back to bite her when Connor rats her out to Sam at her 7th birthday party.

* ABirthdayNotABreak: Lucy gets taken away from Sam and placed into a foster home on her 7th birthday. It's even lampshaded by Sam, who protests to a police officer, "You can't do that, it's her ''birthday''!"

* YourCheatingHeart: Rita breaks down and comments about to Sam her husband screwing people who are "far more perfect" than her.

Sam ends up moving in just down the street from the foster home. He's not aware that this is a bad thing. Lucy runs away to Sam's house repeatedly, and he keeps bringing her back to the foster home because he knows she has to obey the law. Eventually even the foster mother comes around, realizing how much Lucy loves her father, and one night she even brings her over to Sam's house.

* OverlyLongHug: Sam and Lucy ultimately have to be pried off of each other when saying goodbye to each other.

* WhenYouComingHomeDad: Rita and her husband are overworked and use to spend hardly any time with their son.

* OhCrap: Lucy wears an epic and extremely painful one of these when Sam is trying to read her ''Literature/{{Stellaluna}}'', but his reading skills are almost nonexistent, so she starts ''reading the story to him.'' Right at this moment, she suddenly realizes that she's smarter than her father.

* YourCheatingHeart: Rita breaks down and comments about her husband screwing people who are far more perfect than her.

* OhCrap: Lucy wears an epic and extremely painful one of these when Sam is trying to read her a bedtime story, but his reading skills are almost nonexistent, so she starts ''reading the story to him.'' Right at this moment, she suddenly realizes that she's smarter than her father.

--->'''Turner:''' What makes you think you can raise a 7-year-old? A 10-year-old? A 13-year-old? You know what that means? She'll be six years more advanced than you. What makes you think you can do that? What makes you think you can do that? [[RuleOfThree What makes you think you can do that?]]

Read more: https://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/movie_script.php?movie=i-am-sam

-->'''Turner:''' What makes you think you can raise a 7-year-old? A 10-year-old? A 13-year-old? You know what that means? She'll be six years more advanced than you. What makes you think you can do that? What makes you think you can do that? [[RuleOfThree What makes you think you can do that?]]

* ArmorPiercingQuestion: In one of the court scenes, when Annie is on the stand, the other lawyer brings up her father, and she stares at him for a long time and then breaks down and cries. We can only assume [[AbusiveParents the reason]].

--> '''Rita''': So, what you're saying is ... you don't worry about Lucy's future.\\
'''Annie''': No. I do. I worry all the time. I worry if they take Lucy away from her father they will take away an enormous piece of her ... and I worry that she will spend the rest of her life trying to fill that hole.

* InnocentlyInsensitive: What results in Lucy being taken away by CPS. While preparing for Lucy's sixth birthday party, Sam tries to get an indignant and ableist classmate to stay in "the surprise position" by physically grabbing and moving him into it. The kid's father, wary that Sam is touching his child, tries to make him stop, resulting in Sam having to be physically pushed away and causing CPS to deem Sam as potentially harmful to other children.

Shortly thereafter, the school realizes that Lucy is being raised by a mentally handicapped person, and they report it. After an incident where Sam mishandles another child while preparing for Lucy's sixth birthday party, causing the child's father to retaliate, Lucy gets taken into foster care pending a court hearing to figure out if Sam is capable of raising her. Sam seeks out a pro-bono lawyer, who is initially resistant to the idea of representing him, but eventually gets up to bat with everything she has.

Shortly thereafter, the school realizes that Lucy is being raised by a mentally handicapped person, and they report it. Lucy gets taken into foster care pending a court hearing to figure out if Sam is capable of raising her. Sam seeks out a pro-bono lawyer, who is initially resistant to the idea of representing him, but eventually gets up to bat with everything she has.

* InspirationallyDisadvantaged: The film is about a mentally challenged single dad fighting the state for custody of his daughter.

* OhCrap: Luck wears an epic and extremely painful one of these when Sam is trying to read her a bedtime story, but his reading skills are almost nonexistent, so she starts ''reading the story to him.'' Right at this moment, she suddenly realizes that she's smarter than her father.

Sam ends up moving in just down the street from the foster home. He's not aware that this is a bad thing. Lucy runs away to Sam's house repeatedly, and he keeps bringing her back to the foster home, because he knows she has to obey the law. Eventually even the foster mother comes around, realizing how much Lucy loves her father, and one night she even brings her over to Sam's house.

* CrusadingLawyer: Rita. She is not in for the money, in fact she decides to work ''pro bono'' after some heartwarming moments with Sam.

* HollywoodLaw: In reality, it's unlikely Sam would lose custody entirely, since he is neither abusing or neglecting Lucy, though he might be required to have supervision from a social worker. Also, these proceedings are generally much more informal. The state attorney verbally attacking Sam on the stand is also inappropriate and a judge likely would not permit it, particularly given his mental disability (it's akin to him dressing down a child).

--> '''Rita''': Sam, don't be impossible. Can I have the spinach omelette - only egg whites, no fat, no oil, no butter, and extra mushrooms?

* LyingFingerCross: Lucy, when making her oath before court.

* OhCrap: Luck wears an epic and extremely painful one of these when Sam is trying to read her a bed time story, but his reading skills are almost nonexistent, so she starts ''reading the story to him.'' Right at this moment, she suddenly realizes that she's smarter than her father.

* AmbiguousDisorder: While Sam's disability is never outright specified, his highly methodical thoughts and actions, narrow-minded obsession with Music/TheBeatles, occasional struggles with verbalizing his thoughts, poor responses to stress, and displays of stimming when emotionally overwhelmed imply that he is meant to be severely autistic. However, his characterization plays up so many stereotypes of the disorder that it veers heavily into HollywoodAutism territory.