"My Left Foot" is based on a true story, the life of Christy Brown. Born with cerebral palsy in a lower middle class Irish family, Brown overcomes severe physical handicaps and local prejudice to become a noted painter. "My Left Foot" is the only limb that works for Brown. The other leg and both arms are useless. His face is eternally caught in an extreme grimace, and he can only speak with difficulty. He writes, paints, and moves about using only his left foot.
"My Left Foot" isn't completely a story of
triumph over handicaps. There are many painful
scenes of setbacks for Brown, at first when he is
unable to communicate, and later when he is
unable to find the romantic love he craves. He
can be verbally abusive, and sometimes he drinks
too much. He is not above self-pity either. These
unhappy scenes probably didn't help at the box
office, but they validate the film.
Daniel Day Lewis plays Christy Brown, and
deservedly won a Best Actor Oscar for his
performance. Lewis is possibly the best actor of
our generation, and the quality and variety of
his film roles is impressive. He was a fop in "A
Room With a View", a philanderer in "The
Unbearable Lightness of Being", and an
impassioned prisoner in "In the Name of the
Father", all of them outstanding films.
In supporting roles, Brenda Fricker is excellent
as Brown's mother. She won an Academy Award for
Best Supporting Actress. Ray McAnally is Brown's
father, an unemployed bricklayer who struggles
with his role as head of the household. Fiona
Shaw plays a sunny social worker and arts patron
who helps Christy face the world.
While "My Left Foot" is a very good film, it is
not without flaws. There is a bar-room fight
scene played for laughs, which is perhaps
requisite to films based in Ireland, but doesn't
work in this case. Also, the happy ending seems
artificial, even if it is a true story. (73/100)
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