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.
Review of Angela's Ashes
