Nomination:
Academy Awards 2002: BEST ACTOR - SEAN PENN

Synopsis:
Sam Dawson(Sean Penn), a mentally challenged father raising his daughter Lucy(Dakota Fanning)with the help of an extraordinary group of friends. As Lusy 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(Michelle Pfeiffer), a highpowered, selt-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 mirrors Rita's more socially acceptable absessive-compulsive nature. Her manic need for perfection and success alienates her from own son and has been slowly destroying her self-worth.

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.