My Left Foot **** (1989, Daniel Day-Lewis, Ray McAnally, Brenda Fricker, Hugh O’Conor, Ruth McCabe, Fiona Shaw) – Classic Movie Review 5541

Daniel Day-Lewis and Brenda Fricker won the 1990 Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress Oscars for their outstanding, heart-rending performances as Christy Brown and his mother Mrs Brown, in Jim Sheridan’s inspiring 1989 biopic of the man born with cerebral palsy who emerged as one of Ireland’s foremost writers. Born into a large, poor Irish family, and encouraged by his mother, he learns to paint and write with the only limb he can control  – his left foot.

Ray McAnally (as dad, Mr Brown) and Hugh O’Conor (as young Christy Brown) provide the perfect support, while Jim Sheridan’s direction and script (co-written with Shane Connaughton, based on Christy Brown’s book) capture a time, a place and a life with consummate economy and style.

Elmer Bernstein (1922–2004) again shows why he is about the best composer in the business. [He died on 18 August 2004, aged 82. His last movie score was for Far from Heaven in 2002.]

Also in the cast are Ruth McCabe, Fiona Shaw, Eanna MacLiam, Alison Whelan, Declan Croghan, Cyril Cusack, Phelim Drew, Patrick Laffan and Adrian Dunbar.

It was also Oscar nominated for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.

Day-Lewis is a triple Best Actor Oscar-winner – for My Left Foot (1989), There Will Be Blood (2007) and Lincoln (2012). He was also nominated for In the Name of the Father (1993) and Gangs of New York (2002).

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5541

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