★★★½ My Left Foot

[Gino: 3.5 sp]

Gino says: 'This is a film about the Irish writer and painter Christy Brown, severely disabled from birth with cerebral palsy, and his relationships with his family and teachers, and struggles and growth as a person. The style is pleasantly straight-forward and unobtrusive, in contrast with say The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (similar theme), where the cinematography took center stage. I found it engaging enough. But mostly Daniel Day-Lewis's acting is (as usual) astounding. It made me giggle that he had to constrain his body while forcing himself to speak with great difficulty AND put a Dublin accent on top of it all. '