I read Frank McCourt's account of his childhood in Ireland several years ago. The book Angela's Ashes has been on the bestseller list for quite some time now, and I have been anxiously awaiting the film adaptation. Director Alan Parker has given us a film that faithfully reconstructs the images recounted in McCourt's masterpieces. While the film is faithful and technically quite good, somewhere in the process the filmmakers lost McCourt's voice and his distinctly Irish humor along the way.For those who have not read the book, Angela's Ashes is about Frank McCourt's coming of age in America and in Ireland. When the book opens, the McCourt family is living in America, having come to the land of opportunity to escape the wretched poverty of rural Ireland. Unfortunately, they have arrived in the land of opportunity in the midst of the great depression and opportunities are scarce. After a newborn dies, the family decides to head back to Ireland, but fortunes her are hardly better, and the McCourt patriarch spends what little money they can get drowning his sorrows. The father (capably portrayed by Robert Carlyle of The Full Monty) reminds me a bit of the tippler in The Little Prince. When the little prince asks the tippler why he drinks, the tippler replies, "to forget". Not satisfied with this answer, the little prince persists in his inquiry, "to forget what?" The tippler replies, "to forget that I drink."Angela is Frank McCourt's mother, the woman who loses three children to "the consumption", tries to put up with her alcoholic husband, and is permanently despondent over the debilitating poverty of her family. Emily Watson, the gifted actress who has been nominated for Oscars for performances in Hillary and Jackie and Breaking the Waves, plays Angela.While I miss some of authenticity and poetry of McCourt's writing, this is still a film worth seeing. If you have read the book, you may be mildly disappointed in the film adaptation. If you have not had the privilege of reading the book, you should take the opportunity to see the film. This is one of those great stories about the resilient nature of the human spirit, triumph out of tragedy, hope in the midst of suffering. John William's score has been nominated for an Oscar, and the music does its job by creating synergistic movement with the visuals. I wish the film flowed a bit better in terms of pacing, and I wish it had more of McCourt's poetic imagery. In the final analysis, the important question is, is my life enriched by having seen it? 'Tis.

"Angela's Ashes" is an exhilarating autobiography. The film is from 1999 and is written by Laura Jones. The book is by Frank McCourt. It is very dramatic and follows the life of Frank McCourt from his boyhood in Brooklyn in 1935 to his return to Ireland and the loss of his three younger siblings due to his family's poverty. The cast includes Emily Watson, Robert Carlyle, Joe Breen, Claran Owens, Michael Legge, Ronnie Masterson, Pauline McLynn, Liam Carney, Eanna MacLiam, Andrew Bennett, Shane Murray-Corcoran, Devon Murray, Peter Halpin, Aaron Geraghty, Sean Carney Daly, Oisin Camey Daly, Shane Smith, Tim O'Brien, Blaithnaid Howe, Klara O;Leary, Caroline O'Sullivan and Ryan Fielding. It is a long picture, but well performed and I gave it 8 stars. Dale Haufrect

Clocking in at two hours and twenty minutes, Angela's Ashes charts the early life of the real life lead character, Frank McCourt, based on his autobiography. Set in the not so distant past of mid 1930′s Ireland, it looks like a Dickensian tome, with muddy streets, abject poverty and sewage being thrown down the street.It's hard to believe that this was life in the mid 20th Century in a western country, where religion and anti-British propaganda ruled the masses of a country that was more than a little down on its luck. Dingy, realistic and difficult to enjoy, this was a very real take on this dismal period in history.The cast was admirable, with big hitters such as Robert Carlisle and Emily Watson as the titular Angela, but there were no weak links in this department at all. Overall, it was a very well made film but the drama was too loosely constructed and episodic as it simply followed the eldest son and writer of the source novel, Frank, as he grows up and attempts to realise his dream of leaving Ireland and building a new life in America.If you like real life drama set in the dismal surroundings where escapism is nowhere to be seen, then this is a masterpiece, but for everyone else, it's an interesting look into a way of life that should have died out with Queen Victoria. Ultimately, this film failed to make its money back and some would argue, failed to live up to the book and it certainly lacked enough humour to carry the story through what in many cases were traumatic events in such a dire environment.And I must have the missed the point of the title, as what the hell were Angela's Ashes?

Angela's Ashes is a moving drama by long time and now retired director Alan Parker adapted from Frank McCourts Pulitzer Prize winning book about his childhood. Already in the opening scene we are informed by the narration from the main character that "I had a miserable childhood", and wow what an understatement that turned out to be. In the very same opening we are introduced to most of the main characters, the mother Angela McCourt (played by Oscar Nominee Emily Watson) and the somewhat loser father Malachy McCourt (played by Robert Carlyle), as well as his younger brother Malachy (jr.), the twins and his little baby sister. Just to set the tone for the rest of the movie his sister dies in the very next and devastated by the loss Angela moves her family back to Ireland. His baby sister dieing also makes us understand a lot about his drunk and no good father who disappears for several weeks. As the poor family arrives in Ireland we are introduced to his mother's side of the family, Angela's brother, sister, the sisters husband and the strong overly judging grandmother (played by Ronnie Masterson) who besides her roughness makes the perfect comic relief. You might get the idea that most of their problems are over now but your soon drawn back into their miserable surroundings as the father, crushed by the fact that he neither can get or keep a job picks up his drinking habits again and the rest of their family keeps fading away. In the film Frank McCourt is played by three different actors (Joe Breen, Ciaran Owens, and Michael Legge) without counting the narrator voiced by Andrew Bennett and contains for the most part different peaces of his life kept together by the wonderful narration. The story itself is a heart-warming and honest look at how hard and dangerous it were to grow up in Ireland in the 30's and 40's and deals with a boy's fight to get out of his terrible and miserable surroundings of hate, poverty and religious conservatism. Personally I think the film works beautifully in making a harsh and true look at the events and Frank McCourt himself has apparently praised the movie for a correct portrayal of his life. The actors all give marvelous performances, especially Emily Watson who is the perfect dramatic actress and as for Robert Carlyle's performance he makes the makes father more sympathetic than most other actors ever could. Even the child actors give strong performances as innocent and blue-eyed children in the transformation of becoming adults and as the main character grows up we learn to love him, even at his most sinister at the end. I can with one hand at my heart state that I could not find anything wrong about this movie and that it moved me more than most other movies has ever moved me before. The acting is strong, the narration is perfect, the direction is wonderful and the cinematography is probably one of the most beautiful things you will ever see in your life. The music is also very lovable and as a whole I would say the movie is a extremely strong 9/10.