Thoughts on My Left Foot

via oscarchamps.com

"This is Christy Brown. My son. Genius."

Is there a condition where one subconsciously recomposes a song, rewrites a book or reedits a movie while engaging with them? I thought of this phenomena while mulling over My Left Foot.

Adapted from Christy Brown's autobiography of living with cerebral palsy while being one of many children in a working class Irish family, My Left Foot is a moving film. Daniel Day-Lewis is excellent as Christy. He's a boy. He's a burden. He's a bloke. He's a bastard. He's brilliant.

What I'm having trouble with is the difference between what I saw and what many critics in 1989 saw. Several reviews lauded director and co-screenwriter Jim Sheridan for not over-sentimentalizing the material, for acknowledging the plight of the Brown family, particularly Christy. I agree, but it's not like the film was especially bleak. In fact, it often plays like a wise, gentle coming of age story.

"It would not be true to say that I am no longer lonely. I have made myself articulate and understood to people in many parts of the world, and this is something we all wish to do whether we're crippled or not. Yet, like everyone else, I am acutely conscious sometimes of my own isolation, even in the midst of people. And I often give up hope of ever being able to really communicate with them. It is not only the sort of isolation that every writer or artist must experience in the creative mood if he is to create anything at all. It is like a black cloud sweeping down on me unexpectedly, cutting me off from others. A sort of deaf-muteness."

Nearly a year ago, I criticized Lean on Me for stretching credibility with its artistic liberties. I'd be a hypocrite for not pointing out My Left Foot does the same. Christy and Mary Carr (Ruth McCabe), the nurse he's successfully wooed, end the film happy together as a postscript mentions their marriage. Maybe the pair did share such a moment. But Carr, who died in 2006, allegedly abused Brown, who choked to death in 1981. A supposedly reality-based film ignored its principles at a point when they would especially matter. I'm also uncomfortable with Brown's death being ignored. It makes me wonder how many moviegoers thought, "Boy, I'd like to meet him."

For the most part, My Left Foot is a film made with great care. It features fine performances across the board. Day-Lewis, as mentioned, is fabulous. The performance is justifiably legendary, especially alongside Hugh O'Conor's great work as the young Christy Brown.

Despite the baggage attached to their roles, I enjoyed Fiona Shaw and McCabe's performances as (the composite) Dr. Eileen Cole and Carr. No qualifiers need to be given when considering Ray McAnally's often funny and always soulful work as Mr. Brown. The same goes for Brenda Fricker, who more than holds her own opposite O'Conor and Day-Lewis as Bridget Brown. She's heartbreaking. She's three-dimensional. She's Ma.

"Go ahead, Christy. Make your mark."

Recommended.

Thoughts:

-- Box Office: Grossing nearly $15 million on an under $1 million budget, this came in at No. 68 for 1989. It had its widest release leading up to and right after the 62nd Academy Awards.

-- Awards Watch: Day-Lewis and Fricker won Oscars, with the film, Sheridan's direction and the script (by Sheridan and Shane Connaughton) also earning nominations. Despite being recognized by the National Society of Film Critics, critics associations in New York and Los Angeles and the BAFTAs, Day-Lewis was an also-ran at the Golden Globes, losing to Tom Cruise for Born on the Fourth of July. An Independent Spirit Award winner for Best Foreign Film, My Left Foot was also nominated at the BAFTAs for Best Film, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Makeup and McAnally's performance (he won). Fricker, recognized by the L.A. critics, was also a Golden Globe nominee (she lost to Julia Roberts for Steel Magnolias).

-- Critic's Corner, the film: "It is not an inspirational movie, although it inspires," Roger Ebert wrote. "It is not a sympathetic movie, although it inspires sympathy." David Denby, New York: "An old-fashioned great movie."

-- Critic's Corner, DD-L: Christy Brown is the kind of role that showoff stars leap at, Peter Travers observed in Rolling Stone. "Luckily for the film and us, an actor got there first." "This astonishing young actor spares himself nothing," wrote Hal Hinson, Washington Post.

-- Hey, it's 2020!: In addition to its own merits, My Left Foot's legacy is assured for two reasons. A, it was one of the first films Miramax heavily promoted for awards consideration. B, it was possibly the world at-large's introduction to Day-Lewis' chameleon-like approach to acting. He'd been in films for years, of course, but My Left Foot can be considered the one that made him a star. How exciting (and maybe a little frustrating) it must have been once it turned out he wasn't going to play the Hollywood game.

-- Today in Sketch Comedy: Jim Carrey starred in "My Left Foot of Fury," a merely okay parody for In Living Color. Seems like it would have benefited with more actual cast members for Jim to play off of.

-- "(looking at a nudie picture) What's that?" "That's her thing. You put your thing in there for a half an hour and you get a baby. If you do it for an hour, you get twins." "My cousin's a twin."

-- Next: Mystery Train. On deck: All Dogs Go to Heaven.