This is a good place to go if you want to watch Sean Penn act.

He plays the part of Sam, a mentally challenged single parent, who brings his daughter Lucy (Dakota Fanning) up by himself until the courts take her away from him. And he plays it very well.

Fine acting, this, and won him an Oscar nomination. Unfortunately, I didn't believe in Sam for one moment. I didn't believe in the film either.

I didn't believe - as the film so obviously does - that Sam is a fit person to bring up a child who, at seven, is already smarter than he is.

I didn't, in fact, believe - as the film so obviously does - that all you need is love.

What else didn't I believe? Well, I didn't believe that Michelle Pfeiffer, the smart lawyer who - pro bono - helps Sam try to get Lucy back from the warm embrace of foster mother Laura Dern, would have given him the time of day.

Nor did I believe the coincidence that Pfeiffer is also virtually a single parent but not doing half as good a job with her son as Sam did with Lucy.

This is a story ruled by the heart rather than the head.

What the heart says is that Sam and Lucy would be fine together, he providing the tender loving care and she - though, I repeat, only seven - handling the practical stuff.

Nice idea but the head says it wouldn't work and, so, neither does the film...no matter how manipulative and heartstring-tugging it might be. And it is both of those things.

Barry Norman