Gaby: Una historia verdadera

This film was released the same year as "My Left Foot"---and as so often happens, the Better film gets ignored and the inferior wins the Oscars. This is a genuinely quality performance by every member of the cast, and it deals with the same subject matter as MLF: a child who grows up with a mental gift, a disabled body, and all the tugged heartstrings that are essential to the cinema. Rachel Levin plays the Day-Lewis part even more convincingly, and Norma Aleandro is never less than superb.

I'll defer to the first commentator on how well the film deals with CP, but one thing that impressed me was that -- with one or two minor details that I question (college students usually don't live alone, and certainly not in large apartments) -- this is the ONLY Hollywood film I've ever seen that captures Mexico City, and Mexico, as a normal place with its own quirks.

Really, though, the film is more about maid's nobility and heroism (after all, she had to go to school as an adult)which is slightly overlooked with an impressive Argentinian like Norma Leandro playing a Mexican "campasina".

Everybody knows MY LEFT FOOT. After all, it's considered a classic of the 1980s and it made Daniel Day Lewis win the first of his three Academy Awards. But very few know that a year before that a movie about another person with a similar life was being made. And despite having never seen MY LEFT FOOT but being an obscure movie lover myself, I gave GABY A TRUE STORY a try and I loved it to the point that I wanted to give it a score higher than 10... it's that great!

The movie follows the life of Gaby Brimmer (Rachel Chagall) that is the daughter of Jewish refugees living in Mexico that has cerebral palsy. In other words, her entire body is paralized except her mind and her left foot, and with the help of her tutor succedds in attending school, college and become a successful writer even tho dealing with some personal tragedies.

The acting by Chagall was great (and it's a shame that she hasn't made that many movies after this one), and also by Robert Loggia, Liv Ullman and Tony Goldwyn. The plot, while at times depressing, was still inspiring because it gives the message that even tho you have some serious impairments, you can make it in life. In fact, Brimmer's dad makes the example that Beethoven was deaf yet he made all that great classical music.

Not to be missed even if you already saw MY LEFT FOOT (unlike me) because it has some touching moments and an inspiring feel to it that it will make you root for Gaby despite her handicap. And since it's on Youtube, give it a try if you stumble upon it during a search.

This is an excellent film, with a well-written script and fine performances, particularly by Rachel Levin and Norma Aleandro. The comments that are placed at the front page for this film are incorrect factually on one point: My Left Foot was released two years after this film, not concurrently. For what it's worth, I have Cerebral Palsy. Both Levin and Day-Lewis deliver stunning work in their respective roles, but my view is that MLF is a slightly better film and both are magnificent and worth seeing. Anyone interested in either should by all means watch King Gimp as well, a documentary on Dan Keplinger, an artist with Cerebral Palsy. This film, and the other two, are most highly recommended.

This movie was very inspirational, sad, and moving. It was amazing to watch someone so limited physically effect the lives around her and do so much with her own life. I, of course, had a huge lump in my throat when her and her true love Luis could not be together. Really makes you reflect on your own life and realize how much more you could be doing with it.