My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown
November. 10,1989 RNo one expects much from Christy Brown, a boy with cerebral palsy born into a working-class Irish family. Though Christy is a spastic quadriplegic and essentially paralyzed, a miraculous event occurs when, at the age of 5, he demonstrates control of his left foot by using chalk to scrawl a word on the floor. With the help of his steely mother — and no shortage of grit and determination — Christy overcomes his infirmity to become a painter, poet and author.
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Powerful
People are voting emotionally.
Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,
An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.
Daniel Day-Lewis proves that he is the greatest actor of a generation. No other human could have fit the mold for this role. The story is incredible and you truly feel like you're experiencing a story instead of just watching it through a screen. Bravo.
The name suggests this the story of Christy brown but the film is far away from reality. The character of Dr. Eileen Cole was completely fictional . There was no such love story in Brown's life . Nothing much was shown about the difficulties that Brown faced due to cerebral palsy . Nothing much about his childhood and his parents grown him . The film ended immediately after his marriage because people want happy ending. But in his real life , her wife made his real miserable . Even if we forget about accuracy , this film still stinks. It's not a biography , it's a collection of some incidents of his life which hardly have any connection. It is supposed to be a story of a man with cerebral palsy but nothing much is shown about Brown's struggle due to that disease. Nothing about the equipments used by the doctors. And not many scenes between Christy and Eileen . I have to admit acting was great . Surprising that Hugh O' Connor remained unnoticed . Otherwise , a huuuuge letdown.
'My Left Foot' is the remarkable story of Christy Brown, born into a working-class Irish family with cerebral palsy. Growing up in a life full of poverty and extreme prejudice, Christy defied everyone's expectations. Using his left foot, the only part of his body he had proper control over, the young man learned to write and paint.I could spend this review talking about the film's excellent portrayal of working class Ireland, and the working class Irish family specifically. I could talk about how the film does a good job of showing how the attitudes towards Christy Brown changed as Ireland's own political landscape changed. I could probably also talk about the role of women in Christy's life, from his mother and sisters, to the loves in his life. All of these things are worthy of mention.However, when talking about 'My Left Foot', there is one thing that stands out above everything else; that being Daniel Day-Lewis. Day-Lewis had already proved his acting chops in the excellent 'My Beautiful Laundrette, but it was this movie that put him on the map globally. And rightly so: he is absolutely fantastic as Christy Brown.Acting is difficult at the best of times, when you're playing a fully-functioning human being. What Day-Lewis achieves, therefore, is even more admirable. It is an extremely effective and realistic portrayal of someone suffering from cerebral palsy, and the actor goes gung-ho with both the physicality expressiveness required for the role. It is a joy to watch.An honourable mention also needs to go to Hugh O'Conor, who plays the younger Brown. I can only assume that it is even harder for a child to go through the rigours that the role requires, but O'Conor is brilliant. What makes the character difficult to play is that, in trying to make it look real physically, the emotion required can be lost. Both actors avoid that problem with what seems like relative ease: at no point does the efficacy or emotion of the moments falter.All the other stuff mentioned above are worthy of talking about, if I intended to write a longer review. But for this small thing, I think it is more than enough to say that 'My Left Foot' deserves to be seen just for this landmark Daniel Day-Lewis performance. Whatever you may think of the film as a whole, or whether you care about the story of Christy Brown or not, it is secondary to the simple appreciation for an actor at the top of his game.
I like Daniel Day-Lewis. I get what he was after (not milking our sympathy and giving an accurate portrayal). That said, this movie was boring. Boring.First of all, the storyline is just not that great. I realize it's Christy Brown's life. I don't dispute that he's amazing; nor that his mom was amazing; nor his siblings, who, too, are wonderfully loving. It's just not that great a "plot."Secondly, I can be very emotional, but this movie didn't make me cry, laugh, feel indignant, or teach me any great life lesson. I wasn't inspired, and felt no sense of triumph.Thirdly, watching the movie was like someone saying to me, "Hey, there's this guy I read about with cerebral palsy. All he could control was his left foot, so he wrote and painted with it. His paintings were actually very good, and he typed with his toe." My response? "Wow" (with no exclamation point). Am I interested to hear more? No. Am I glad he told me? Not really.Lastly, Daniel Day-Lewis's acting was so good, that I could understand only 15% of his words. Tough to watch a movie when you can't understand the main character. Give me a break. This may be the case with some individuals with severe CP (but not with my CP friends, 90% of whose words I understand), but even if it were the case for Christy Brown, I mean--come on--I'm watching a movie here. Make me a concession. I know, I know. If he were my brother, I'd have to learn. But this is a movie. I've got two hours, not a background of twelve years listening to this guy and thereby learning to understand him. Speak understandably, DDL, for the sake of the movie viewers; we'll still get your point. DDL's unclear speech causes one to try to figure out through the whole movie what he's just said by the context of how everyone else in the movie responds. Let me understand his words. Speak so that I can. Ugghhh.