My Left Foot Jim Sheridan

Critical response

My Left Foot received widespread critical acclaim. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 98% of 44 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.2/10. The website's consensus reads: "No doubt most will come to My Left Foot for Daniel Day-Lewis's performance, but the movie's refusal to go downbeat will keep it in viewers' minds afterwards."[15] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 97 out of 100, based on 18 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[16]

Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars, writing: "My Left Foot is a great film for many reasons, but the most important is that it gives us such a complete picture of this man's life. It is not an inspirational movie, although it inspires. It is not a sympathetic movie, although it inspires sympathy. It is the story of a stubborn, difficult, blessed, and gifted man who was dealt a bad hand, who played it brilliantly, and who left us some good books, some good paintings and the example of his courage. It must not have been easy."[17]

In 2015, The Hollywood Reporter polled hundreds of academy members, asking them to re-vote on past controversial decisions. Academy members indicated that, given a second chance, they would award the 1990 Academy Award for Best Picture to My Left Foot instead of Driving Miss Daisy.[18]

Accolades