Left Footed

 

I normally do not like watching movies at home. There are too many distractions. So it was with reluctance that I sat down with busylizzy the other night and watched a movie she had borrowed from the library.

I thought Daniel Day-Lewis was excellent in "Lincoln" and I have heard about "My Left Foot" for as long as it has been out so I thought I was in for a treat. After all, can the "Academy" be wrong? The caption on the above poster states that is it is an exhilarating movie. Maybe they and me are reading out of different dictionaries, but I did not find this movie exhilarating at all.

 

My biggest complaint was that there is great difficulty in understanding the dialogue. Between the Irish accents, the Irish colloquialisms, and speech impediment of the main character, there is little to be gained by turning up the volume on the TV. What little I did hear was profane and is probably what earned this movie an 'R' rating.

 

The story is interesting, and I get it that Day-Lewis portrayed his character in such a way as to prevent us from feeling sorry for him, but the overall tone is dark and cheerless. There is a lot here also that is unexplained.

Perhaps this movie got the accolades it did because it followed the "Rain Man" which earned Dustin Hoffman an Academy award in the previous year, and showcasing handicapped people was all the rage in those days. There is merit to what they were trying to do, but movie making still requires that the audience be enthralled, captured, entertained and left with a great memory of having seen something special.

 

After enduring the movie to the end, I informed busylizzy that I too could act the part of a victim of cerebral palsy, and I commenced to giving her a demonstration. Because my audience was small and unimpressed, I regret to announce that I will not be getting a nomination for my performance. 

 

3 stars