My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown (1989)

Daniel Day-Lewis delivers an amazing performance in the biopic of Irish artist and writer Christy Brown. 

Christy is born with cerebral palsy into a huge Irish family in Dublin. Because of the palsy, he is without speech for the first decade and a half and drags himself around using the only part of his body that he can fully control - his left foot. We discover who he is as he begins to express himself and participate with his community - even playing soccer while laying on his side in the street.

The film is a powerful telling of the story, but also in depicting the poverty and strength of will that the family demonstrated to care for and protect their son/brother in a time when society would have sent him to an asylum. Hugh O'Conor, the boy who played the young Christy Brown, deserves as much attention as Day-Lewis for the magnificent job he did.

IMDB