My Left Foot

Day Lewis' re-creation of writer/painter Christy Brown's condition is so precise, so detailed and so matter-of-fact that it transcends the carping about casting an actor without cerebral palsy. He couldn't have done it better. More to the point, he does it with so little show that the character of Christy - cussed, frustrated, indulged, immature - comes through powerfully. Writers Shane Connaughton and Jim Sheridan take extraordinary liberties with Brown's autobiography, but they've caught the spirit of the man, and satisfied the family, who are presented as saintly, if chaotic. Brenda Fricker, wonderfully eloquent in her silences, and Ray McAnally, in his last screen role, make an utterly convincing Mam and Dad, stopping just the right side of sentimentality. Less happy is Fiona Shaw as the fictional Eileen Cole, an amalgam of several characters in the book. Sheridan gives us an atmospheric Dublin and the economy of the best TV drama; and 13-year-old Hugh O'Conor, playing Christy as a boy, makes an admirable job of holding the ring before the arrival of the main act.