Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.



'Angela's Ashes' is the story of Frank McCourt's life. Not long ago I reviewed the book and could not imagine giving it anything but five stars. It is one of the best books (especially if we limit ourselves to biographies) I have ever read. The movie, however, is not completely simple in what it is. That is to say, it is the movie of this book. If I try to look at it just as a movie, I think I would rate it at approximately 4.5 stars. But, as the movie of the book, I think I would have to give it somewhere around 3.5 stars. This conveniently averages to a 4 star rating.



The story is a simple one. Frank McCourt has had the single worst life of anyone in the history of mankind.

Okay, it's not quite that simple.


Frank McCourt tells us his story though, and it's an ugly one. Frank was born in America, and we follow him back to Ireland, and move side-by-side with him as he struggles with his dream of returning.

We follow him through the poorest of conditions, through the death of several siblings, the struggle to deal with his father who drinks what small amount of money they ever get, and his attempt to come to grips with what his mother must do so that he and his brothers can survive.



A brief rundown of the characters.

Frank's mother, Angela, is played by Emily Watson (Gosford Park, The Mill on the Floss, Breaking the Waves). Watson gives a performance here that is everything one would expect having seen the rest of her films. To my mind, Angela is clearly the most difficult role in the film, and Watson makes it her own, and you cannot help but believe her in every possible way. The range, and more importantly the depth, of emotions that she has to deliver to us is overwhelming.


Frank's father, cleverly billed in the credits as 'Dad' is played by Robert Carlyle (Black and White, Plunkett & Maclaene, The Full Monty). Carlyle is excellent here as well, although I hate to see actors I really like playing characters I really want to hate. Especially when it isn't in the Alan Rickman, cartoon character villain sort of way where you get to like him anyway.

In the case of Frank's father, I think the movie really took a wrong turn. In the commentary on the DVD we see that Carlyle wanted to inject some sort of likeableness into the character, and he certainly does. He and the director, Alan Parker (The Commitments, Come See the Paradise, Evita, Pink Floyd's The Wall) were apparently of the same mind here. To listen to Carlyle and Parker, we are given to understand that this came from McCourt himself. After all, Carlyle tells us that when he discussed the character with McCourt one of the first things he was told was that Frank loved/loves his father. It seemed to me that this little twist was mostly for the benefit of the movie audience, and not as a result of portraying the truth of the story, or of the book. At least, I have to say, I did not get this underlying likableness of the character from the book. That is not to say that the book paints a completely negative picture, and I have no doubts that McCourt loved his father, but in the end of the book you don't like him, and you don't feel sorry for him.


Frank is played, at varying stages, by three actors. As we follow the story from the time Frank is five (four really, but everyone in the commentary says five) until he is nineteen, we shift actors. From Joe Breen as the youngest actor, to Ciaran Owens playing Middle Frank, to Michael Legge taking on the anchor leg. To have three actors do such a good job playing the same person is quite an accomplishment. The only problem I had with any of them was the scene where Frank slaps his mother. This is Michael Legge's stretch of the role, and his anger at his mother seems to snap him right out of his drunk. A drunk which left him all but completely unable to walk seconds earlier.

That's really about it as far as the relevant cast. The supporting cast does a superb job, but they are roles that are on the very slim side of support. One notable distraction to the movie is that Frank's Aunt Aggie is played by Pauline McLynn. Now, she is a worthy actress, and has been in such movies as 'Quills' and 'Iris', and has given very good performances, and she gives one here. Unfortunately, she played Ms. Doyle on 'Father Ted', and when the camera suddenly centers on her, Dougal popped up in the back of my brain, pointed, and yelled 'It's Ms. Doyle!'



What you really need to know about the plot is that Frank (in more or less his own words) had a miserable childhood. And, not only a miserable childhood, but the even worse miserable Irish childhood. And worse still, (the worst of all) a miserable Irish Catholic childhood.

You would really have to try to be any more poor. Now, add the evictions for not being able to pay the rent, the constant trips to the church charity to get a stick of furniture or a sheep's head for Christmas dinner, a nearly fatal case of typhoid, conjunctivitis that nearly leaves Frank blind, and you start to get the idea that this might easily turn into a bad day.


The story is simple, life sucked. Of course, it's not quite that simple, because no matter who tells it, that isn't an interesting story. Life didn't quite completely suck, but bloody close... that you can make a story out of.

This is what works in the book, but it doesn't work as well in the movie. In the book we are given some serious insights into the idea that life was not all bad. That Frank did have fun, learned a great deal, and, in his own way, he really did love life. We are given this in the movie as well, but it just didn't feel quite as real, and it was hard to judge how well it would have worked if I hadn't read the book. At one point, Frank gets a job helping a family friend deliver coal. He is about twelve at this time, and to drive past the boys at school with them knowing that you have a job and are earning your own money as though you were actually a man now is a very big thing in the book. Frank's ability to finally draw some self-esteem out of something plays a major part in the development of the story. In the movie version of this particular aspect of the story, Frank whizzes by the schoolyard for all of 2.6 seconds (no, I'm just making that up), and we have to get the entire idea conveyed to us (if we are going to get it) by way of facial expressions, Frank's and the boys in the schoolyard.





One of the more distracting problems--- Life (and this is what this movie is supposed to show) happens in color. Utter poverty, drunk fathers, and a 'home' that is falling down on itself, are not the sort of things that need to be made to look worse by removing all color and putting on the sepia lens. Thus, the movie tells us there is a 'happy time' going on by allowing color into the world. While this works quite well in a movie that is virtually a fairytale or similar (think Chocolat), it is rather distracting at times here.


By and large, the cinematography (very notable here) and direction are well done. In the end, we do get Frank McCourt's story, and the narration throughout helps immensely, as we get to hear some of Frank's own words. As is mentioned amongst the various commentary on the DVD, what makes the book is Frank's voice. His very personal style, his wit, and simply the indefinable 'way he tells the story'. That comes through about as well as it can in a movie.

The story is amazing, and what is amazing about it is that Frank can tell it and not only smile, but make you laugh here and there.


This is a difficult movie when it comes to thoughts on the DVD. The DVD really has a lot of features that make it worth owning, not the least of which being that the movie is very good. But, at the same time, this is a truly incredible and wonderful movie in much the same way as 'A Man and a Woman', or 'The Last Time I Saw Paris'. Which is to say, how often can you watch it?



The DVD includes several impressive features. An approximately thirty-minute 'making of', and interviews with the director, author, and several cast members. You also have the option of watching the movie while the author or director comments. The director, not so interesting to me, but Frank McCourt commenting as you watch the movie of the book of his life is really pretty interesting.

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD