My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown

1989 "A film about life, laughter, and the occasional miracle."
7.8| 1h43m| R| en| More Info
Released: 10 November 1989 Released
Producted By: Ferndale Films
Country: United Kingdom
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

No 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.

Genre

Drama

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Director

Jim Sheridan

Production Companies

Ferndale Films

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My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown Audience Reviews

Evengyny Thanks for the memories!
Cortechba Overrated
Console best movie i've ever seen.
Staci Frederick Blistering performances.
leethomas-11621 Day Lewis and Fricker are superb but why do I get the feeling that this is only a part of the story, no doubt the most important part? I'll have to read the book to see if this is the inspiring true story presented by the movie.
classicsoncall No doubt inspirational, "My Left Foot" is an unflinching look at the life of Christy Brown, born with cerebral palsy and who, with great determination, taught himself to paint with his only usable limb. The character of Christy is portrayed by two remarkable actors, Hugh O'Connor as the young boy, and Daniel Day-Lewis as the adult Christy. The film is not shy about revealing all of the frustration and anger that motivates the man, and in some respects, one will stand in shock at his behavior when things in life do not go his way. His behavior at the dinner party when his language teacher, Dr. Eileen Cole (Fiona Shaw) announced her engagement to Peter (Adrian Dunbar) was one example. His utter rage at an insult against the family, resulting in a barroom brawl was another, so the person was not entirely sympathetic. There were aspects of the picture that didn't ring true to me, and not having read Christy Brown's autobiography, I have no way of knowing if my observations have merit. But for one, there is not one single example of anyone bullying or making fun of the young Christy as a boy. This seemed rather unbelievable to me, as knowing how cruel kids can be, even when not meaning to, that there were no examples of that kind of behavior. Nor was there any reference to how the parents (Ray McAnally, Brenda Fricker) dealt with their son's bodily functions. This may sound gross or unsympathetic, but someone in the family had to attend to those necessities and it wasn't addressed in any sort of way. The behavior and attitude of Christy's many siblings was also a model of decorum throughout, and one marvels at the idea that there were never any squabbles among them growing up.As with many of these biopics, I'm always leery about the Hollywood treatment of making a film with the greatest universal appeal, so that also led me to doing a quick search on the real Christy Brown. I was startled to learn that his relationship with Mary Carr (Ruth McCabe) began while he was having an affair with a married American woman who he intended to wed upon her divorce. The marriage to Mary was fraught with it's own set of problems, as she was accused of being an abusive alcoholic and habitually unfaithful. So the movie's feel good ending was not entirely accurate in the way it was portrayed. Be that as it may, Daniel Day-Lewis is astounding as the adult Christy Brown, having earned a Best Actor Oscar for his efforts. I would almost call it the best performance ever by an actor of a disabled person, but have to qualify that now after having seen Eddie Redmayne's portrayal of Stephen Hawking in 2014's "The Theory of Everything". I'm still puzzled though over Brown's cryptic written words after coming to terms with Eileen Cole's engagement - "All is nothing. Therefore nothing must end." In trying to parse the phrase, anything I come up with doesn't make sense.
claytonchurch1 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.
JAMSHAID RAZZAQ Wonderful movie, Christy Brown is as cripple as Hamlet. He was not "Nothing" so he chose not to end his life. We love his high spirited hopefulness and his refusal to be a vegetable. Millions are mentally and creativity wise more cripple than Christy Brown.The movie depicts the protagonist fighting a great war against outside circumstances ( being a cripple ) and inside world - a desire to make his mark in spite of his apparent inability to create specially in the situation when most around him thought that he was nothing more than a vegetable.I feel Christy Brown represents the modern man struggling against the hostile world without and within. The support of the family, specially the mother figure represents the only hope that we have got - the fellow human beings.Daniel Day Lewis rightly earned his Oscar for his performance. Simply the best.