MY LEFT FOOT Movie Review
This miraculously unsentimental and profoundly moving drama is based on the life and autobiography of writer, artist, and cerebral palsy victim Christy Brown. Considered an imbecile by everyone but his mother (Brenda Fricker) until he teaches himself to write, Brown survives his impoverished Irish roots to become a painter and writer using his left foot, the only appendage over which he has control. The elements were all in place for a maudlin, by-the-numbers, triumph over adversity pic, but this is one case where everyone involved more than rose to the occasion. Daniel Day-Lewis's staggering performance was immediately the stuff of legend; he took home an Oscar for his performance, as did Fricker as his adoring mother. Smaller roles are handled with equal skill, particularly Ray McAnally as Brown's hard-drinking da, and Hugh O'Conor (The Young Poisoner's Handbook) as the young Christy in the film's flashback sequences. Jim Sheridan directed from a script he and Shane Connaughton adapted from Brown's book.This is a stunning achievement, all the more so because of the many cliches it so deftly avoids. Bravo.
NEXT STOP … In the Name of the Father, The 400 Blows, A Brief History of Time
1989 (R) 103m/C IR Daniel Day-Lewis, Brenda Fricker, Ray McAnally, Cyril Cusack, Fiona Shaw, Hugh O'Conor, Adrian Dunbar, Ruth McCabe, Alison Whelan; D: Jim Sheridan;W: Shane Connaughton, Jim Sheridan; M: Elmer Bernstein. Academy Awards ‘89: Best Actor (Day-Lewis), Best Supporting Actress (Fricker); British Academy Awards ‘89: Best Actor (Day-Lewis), Best Supporting Actor (McAnally); Independent Spirit Awards ‘90: Best Foreign Film; Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards ‘89: Best Actor (Day-Lewis), Best Supporting Actress (Fricker); Montreal World Film Festival ‘89: Best Actor (Day-Lewis); New York Film Critics Awards ‘89: Best Actor (Day-Lewis), Best Film; National Society of Film Critics Awards ‘89: Best Actor (Day-Lewis); Nominations: Academy Awards ‘89: Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director (Sheridan), Best Picture. VHS, LV, Closed Caption HBO, BTV, HMV