# My Left Foot (1989)

### reviewed by
Brian Koller

    My Left Foot (1989)

    Grade: 73

"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.

kollers@mpsi.net http://members.tripod.com/~Brian_Koller/movies.html

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