This is a Marvelous movie

After watching it again, I agree with you on that. It tended to drag on.

Viewers seem to disagree on what happens at the end of this movie. It seems to me, reading the comments and user reviews on imdb, that some viewers see it as Sam getting custody, and others see a compromise being reached.

Sam's final comments about Lucy needing a mother, and the foster mother being a good mother, meant to me that he was willing to give her custody. I thought the friendly "See you in court tomorrow" goodbye between Sam and the foster mother indicated they were both willing to compromise. I thought it was clear enough that they were going to come to some kind of joint custody or an arrangement where the foster parents would have custody but Sam would have extensive visiting rights, as had been mentioned as a possibility by Sam's lawyer earlier. To me it was clear, but many imdb commenters see a different conclusion to this movie, so I guess it must be ambiguous.

In any case, the foster mother has no legal right to decide Lucy's case, and even if she had decided to give Lucy back to Sam, the State would not have dropped its case. It was clear to me that a compromise was going to happen.