Genre Guesstimation – My Left Foot (1989)

The idea behind this new feature (Genre Guesstimation) is for me to watch a bunch of new movies from the chosen monthly GG genre in order to expand my knowledge of movies within that particular genre.

Let’s see if I felt that this movie would be worthy of being in the company of my others favorite movies in the genre of BioPics…

“Go ahead, Christy. Make your mark. ” – Mrs. Brown

Number of Times Seen – 1 (20 Oct 2014)

Brief Synopsis – A man born with Cerebral Palsy chooses to find a way to overcome his dibilitative state and become an artistic painter despite only having use of his left foot. Based on a true story.

My Take on it – I have always had a slight urge to watch this movie, but never got around to it because I felt that the storyline would be more sad to watch than uplifting.

Now that I’ve seen it, I think I was right for the past 25 years.

There is no question that Daniel Day Lewis’ performance here was the best of the year. He lost the Globe to Tom Cruise for Born on the 4th of July (1989), which I now find to be despicable because Cruise’s Ron Kovic wasn’t as good a performance as this one was.

After watching his performance here there is no doubt in my mind that he is deserving of being the only actor in history to be awarded three Best Actor Oscars. It’s truly mindblowing seeing what he does to duplicate Brown’s disability.

The problem I find in the movie is two-fold. Firstly, the story is slow and sometimes even boring and secondly, the viewer doesn’t leave with an uplifting feeling, but rather one of sadness for the difficult lives of the characters.

Brenda Fricker (who won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for this role) and Ray McAnally are both great as Day Lewis’ parents.

Bottom Line – Day Lewis’ performance holds up an ok story. There is a reason that he is the sole owner of three best actor Oscars. The rest of the cast is also good, but Fricker and McAnally stand out as his supportive parents. Recommended!

Genre Grandeur Worthy? – Once again, unfortunately not.  This is a must see movie, but I personally don’t think it’s an easily rewatchable one and I don’t think I could say that this is one of my favorite biopics.

Rating – Globe Worthy

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