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Summary: and I thought Malcolm's family was dysfunctional...
Review: This was a powerful movie; I'm not sure if I was supposed to feel sorry for Frank or just be disgusted at their living conditions. I haven't read the book, so I just took the movie for what it was---a grim dose of reality. Joe Breen gets a high five; he was very convincing as young Frank McCourt.
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Summary: Stark realism from another time and place
Review: This film is narrated by the eldest son in a poor Irish family. The family's poverty is not helped by a father who gets a job, only to lose it because his drinking renders him irresponsible. In the best of times, the father is a charming rogue who loves his wife and children. Through deaths of their children and grinding poverty, his charm runs thin with his usually-patient wife. The movie is a realistic picture of the lives of the poor in Ireland, and is somewhat depressing in its depiction of a seemingly hopeless situation. The acting is excellent, especially by the young children. A thought-provoking movie, it leaves the viewer with profound thanks for the material and spiritual riches of life which are possible in our times.
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Summary: Such a Sad Story
Review: The acting, cinematography and score are excellent, but the story itself is such a sad experience. It left me empty and sorry that I'd subjected myself to it. ((Although I did stick it out to the bitter end.))The story starts in New York with the death of a baby. The family leaves New York to go back to an even more impoverished life in Ireland--Frank is a very young boy. The deadbeat father still can't seem to find a job and the family is destined to live in a tenement which is at the lowest part of the property and right next to the community outhouse--so it stinks in the summer and floods all through the rains. The father does nothing but collect unemployment, drink, comfort his wife when a baby dies, and get her pregnant so the cycle can continue. Oh yes, he does fix the boys worn out shoes, but so poorly that the boys are cruelly ridiculed at school. When the father finally leaves the family--you'd hope that things would change, but no, they get worse. They are forced to live with a slob of a relative who forces them to clean up after him--among other foul duties. At the very end of the movie Frank, a young adult now, finally steals a chance and.... I don't mind a tough movie about misery, determination, and fighting against the odds--call it *artistic* if you like--but there was no denoument, no catharsis. I like a movie for its insight, to be inspired by it's life-lessons; but in this movie I couldn't plow through all the tragedy to find my way to the insight and inspiration
Rating:
Summary: Very Good Screen Adaptation of the Frank McCourt Novel
Review: "Angela's Ashes" is for the most part an autobiography, but it also succeeds as a poingant coming of age story. Emily Watson turns in a workmanlike performance as McCourt's dedicated and determined mother. Robert Carlyle is outstanding as the alcoholic father, kind and loving but with the skewed sense of priorities that can only result from alcoholism. He plays this role to perfection. Those of you who are thinking about renting this movie should be advised that although it is quite good and well-acted, the viewing experience is not likely to be uplifting. Although this is not a motion picture about alcoholism per se, "Angela's Ashes" is much like that sort of picture in that it is incredibly depressing. I found myself several times comparing it to "Leaving Las Vegas", another incredibly powerful yet quite depressing motion picture. It's so powerful that I find myself not wanting to relive the experience, meaning it's unlikely I'll ever watch this film again. This is not a complaint but rather a testament to the power of this motion picture. The only complaint that I could make is that the pacing is painfully slow, as if to make the viewer suffer with the family. If that was the director's intent, he succeeded admirably. Overall, I must say that while "Angela's Ashes" is a very worthwhile motion picture, it does not entertain so much as it draws the viewer in and enlightens.
Rating: 
Summary: Hardly A Disappointment
Review: After reading the reviews of several film critics when Angela's Ashes first came out in the theater I sadly decided to veto the movie completly. Then my husband purchased the DVD version of the movie for me as a wonderful treat and I absolutly fell in love with it. I don't care what other people say about Angela's Ashes, it is a rare look into the life of a brilliant man, who forced his way out of a poverty stricken Ireland and made a wonderful life for himself in America. I praise Frank McCourt for his courage and his passion for writing such a heartwarming story about his family and life in Ireland, and Alan Parker, for bringing the book to life in such a dynamic way.
Rating: 
Summary: Good movie though slow at times.
Review: I've never read the book and that's probably why I enjoyed the movie more than others I know who have partaken in both. This story is of a Irish child born into poverty and forced to move back to Ireland with his family. Finances are few and far between for the family who is also cursed by the numerous medical ailments running throughout the world during the era. They suffer many losses which leaves the mother with even less functionality to take care of her brood. This movie is a long one so set time aside to truly enjoy it. The scenery and sets in this film will make it easy to forget that it was built from scratch instead of being some historic Irish village. The young men who portrayed Frank McCourt all put forth excellent performances as did the woman who played Angela. Frank's abusive uncle is a shockingly strong performance for such a small role and you really end up hating him. This movie had a lot of strong performances, a strong storyline (being a true story helps here), and excellent imagery. I would recommend this movie to anyone who has two and a half hours to spare and are looking for an inspiring story of hope and determination.
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Summary: Faithfully Recreates Incidents from The Book,
Review: Of course it doesn't compare to actually reading the book but it faithfully and accurately recreates pretty much all of the major episodes from it. The story itself isn't all that unique or remarkable, so if you see the movie without reading the book you'll wonder what all the fuss is about. It's the humorous, wry prose of the author that made the memoir so good. I'm not sure anyone could have made a film version that would satisfy everyone.
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Summary: I missed McCourt's narrative
Review: Oh, well. Maybe next time. Being one of the legions of fans of the book, I also came to the film with high expectations, and most were statisfied, at least as far as cinematography and acting go. Emily Watson was very good, and the three boys playing the various stages of Frank were wonderful. I question the film's attempt to positively portray some of the characters, for example the grandmother who, by McCourt's account, was a mean-spirited old woman who treated the children quite badly. However, in a tale so oppressive, I guess there must be some redeeming traits, at least in Hollywood. What I missed most of all was McCourt's rambling, Joycean narrative and light tone which makes the book such a joy. His accepting, wistful, voice permeates every aspect of the written story and, more than any of his personal triumphs, it is this calm, all-forgiving voice, looking back from many years later, which is the shining ray of hope in the end. I sorely missed this, and found myself overcome by the appropriately squalid scenery. Another problem I have with the film is the uninspired score by John Williams. Is this man even going to try anymore? Some of Hollywood's younger composers surely could have provided a more interesting and evocative accompaniment. Williams' dull ideas, repeated ad nauseam, had no more place in this film than his quasi-klezmer tunes had in Schindler's List. Overall, Angela's Ashes was a fine effort in film, made anemic by the absence of McCourt's narration. It was inevitable that a book so popular be snatched up by Hollywood, but I will not go out of my way to see it again. I'd rather let the written word carry me away...
Rating: 
Summary: Dark and ugly
Review: The best thing I can say about this film is that Emily Watson understatedly and convincingly plays a somewhat caring, morally ambiguous and occasionally neglectful mother. The rest is sheer misery and bathos. Here's a Joe Bob Briggs-type analysis, to give you an idea: 3 dead children, 4 vomiting scenes, 4 sloshing chamberpot scenes, 2 cases of group masturbation, sex with a tubercular girl, incest, child abuse, and stealing from the dead, showcased in a relentlessly bleak atmosphere of alcoholism, starvation and personal humiliation. If this wasn't based upon a true story, you might wish the lead protagonist would just crawl off and die. Worse yet, the director drags things on for two and a half hours. Ultimately, this film fails the assertion of the narrator that a miserable childhood is more noteworthy than a happy one--misery is relative. Have you ever met anyone that had a perfectly happy childhood? Are you really dying to know the worst this world has to offer? Enough already.
Rating:
Summary: A disappointment
Review: As someone who loved the book, I knew that it would be difficult to translate into film. This effort, however, badly missed the mark. The movie glosses over some of the most moving events in the tale, robbing them of their impact (the surviving twin pining for his lost sibling; the impact on Frank of having the priest refuse to consider him as an altar boy (the movie leaves out the fact that Frank's father had drilled him for a long time on the details of the Latin Mass before this occurred; in the movie, it could just have been something Dad dreamed up the night before while staggering home from the pub); Frank's crippling guilt over the death of his first love; and most distressingly, the way the movie glosses over Frank's encounter with the priest as he prays to St. Francis (in the book, the event is marked with a kindness and compassion Frank had never before experienced; in the movie, the priest is nice enough, but seems to be acting against a blue screen -- there is no connection between him and Frank). While Limerick certainly does look wet, it never really seems all that cold -- and the standing water in "Ireland" (the bottom floor of the apartment) is extremely (and unrealistically)clean. Lastly, why on earth would the producers use an actor to read Frank McCourt's prose when Frank McCourt is amply able to do so himself (as anyone who has heard the audiobook could attest)?
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