Daniel Day Lewis's Performance

I watched this a couple weeks ago and, having seen other Daniel Day Lewis films, expected a great performance from him. However, he completely mesmerized me with his performance. My brother, Zach, has cerebral palsy and Lewis absolutely nails the speaking and mannerisms of a person with this condition. Although no two people with cerebral palsy are affected the same, I did notice a couple striking similarities between Zach and Lewis's portrayal of Christy Brown. For instance, they both can be hard to understand when speaking, which, in the movie, frustrates Christy immensely. I've seen this same frustration in Zach when people can't work out what he's saying. While I don't think it frustrates Zach to the extent that it frustrated Christy, it is definitely there, and Lewis does a brilliant job of showing this. Another similarity is the sort of jerking mannerism that both make when they are excited/angry. Both Zach and Christy's muscles inadvertently tense up, causing a jerking motion with their body, when they become either excited or angry. This is the aspect of Christy that I think Lewis portrays most brilliantly, and when I saw how closely the mannerism reminded me of Zach I could hardly believe it.

All that being said, I believe Lewis's performance is top five all-time and that he was definitely worthy of his Oscar. Each of his performances has amazed me and I hope he sticks around for a long time.