Da flirts with Shakespearean themes, King Lear and Hamlet being the main points of reference.
These cinematic sisters leave a mark as strong as a thicker-than-water bond.
It’s enjoyable junk with a lick of human interest and the good sense to not take itself too seriously in the end.
Minor Sheridan, perhaps, but freakishly well-acted by Toby Maguire and young actresses Bailee Madison and Taylor Geare.
Jim Sheridan has a gift for capturing glimpses of unvarnished, authentic emotion, and his humanism runs so deep that it’s capable of elevating even standard-issue fare like Brothers.
The film primarily forgoes gritty realism in favor of disingenuous, reductive fantasy in the star-glorifying vanity project mold.
It’s easy to imagine what My Left Foot might have looked like in the hands of a lesser director.
Not included in the round-up of critic reviews is the four-star notice by Roger Ebert, who thought about writing his piece with his left foot.
Jim Sheridan’s film isn’t about what it means to live in America as much as it is about what it means to be human.
Every image in the film is so full of love that Jim Sheridan earns the right to lay on the fairy-tale gravitas thick.