few films in 1999 have divided the critical consensus as sharply as alan parker 's adaptation of frank mccourt 's memoir angela 's ashes .
many dismissed it as an humorless , sentimentalized , uninteresting version of the hugely popular novel ; others hailed it as a heartfelt , sincere portrait of the human spirit .
i 'm somewhere in between , leaning strongly towards the latter .
it 's certainly well - made and it never becomes tedious like some literary adaptations have a tendency to be .
but i have a feeling that parker filled the movie with pseudo - lyrical shots of rain falling on the homely streets of ireland just so it can have the two - and - a - half hour running time that screams " i 'm important !
" mccourt 's book of the same name was about him and his family moving from the us to ireland in the early 1900 's , a time when most people were desperately trying to get into the us .
as he comments , " we were the only irishfolk to say goodbye to the statue of liberty .
" in ireland , frank ( played by joe breen as a small child ) , his 3 brothers , his mother angela ( emily watson ) and his father malachy ( robert carlyle ) get financial help from angela 's mother , a stereotypically strict catholic who chides her daughter for marrying a northern irishman .
she helps them get a rat - infested apartment and malachy goes looking for a job .
positions are scarce and when he does finally find one , he is unable to hold on to it because of his fondness for drinking .
meanwhile , frank goes to an uptight catholic school , where the instructors beat students with blunt wooden objects as often as their heart desires .
two of frank 's brothers soon die , crippled by the dreadful living conditions and malnutrition .
as if the poverty and the suffering were n't intense enough as it stood , malachy and angela have another baby , worsening the situation further .
i imagine this does n't sound like much of a plot .
that 's probably because it is n't one .
these are people .
this is their story .
director alan parker ( the commitments ) knows how to tell a good story and angela 's ashes , despite its relentlessly literary tone remains interesting .
though the film occasionally indulges too much in its gloomily picturesque irish setting , it avoids looking like a glorified travelogue . supplementing parker 's able direction are the engaging , often poignant performances of the leads , some of them seasoned thespians , others relative beginners .
carlyle , the charismatic british actor who has shown astonishing range by hopping from the lead in a rowdy slapstick comedy to the villain in a james bond movie and now to sentimental melodrama , perfectly portrays his rather pathetic character .
we empathize with the guy , but we do n't like or admire
him .
emily watson turns in a heartfelt , sincere supporting performance .
it is mostly she who implants that lump in our throats .
also worthy of mention is little joe breen , whose face graces the film 's superb poster .
it is breen 's first feature film
and he 's extraordinary as young frank .
not unlike sudden oscar darling haley joel osment of the sixth sense , you can peer into the character 's soul through breen 's sad eyes .
on the flip side , one thing that could have vastly improved angela 's ashes is a more decisive editor .
while gerry hambling sure makes the most of the scenery , he and parker also leave in at least a half an hour of unnecessary footage .
the first half , especially , could have been trimmed down , bringing the film to a more reasonable running time and doing our bladders a favor in the process .
things pick up at about the halfway point , sort of dismissing a lot of the criticisms i accumulated during the opening hour , but i maintain that the aggressively deliberate pace parker and co. set in the first half was ludicrously unnecessary .
* spoiler warning !
skip next paragraph if in suspense !
* the film 's final message is somewhat conflicted , as frankie , in effect , leaves his family famished in ireland while he himself goes back to america .
what , exactly , are we supposed to make of that ?
his mother does n't seem to mind because she wants the best possible future for her son , as any mother would , but it still seems inconsiderate of him .
i have n't read the book , but i 'm sure that mccourt justifies his actions therein
; therefore , i 'm suspicious .
another thing that 's never made clear in the movie is the meaning of the title , which , i 'm sure , is also explained in the memoir .
if seen as a film onto itself , rather than an adaptation , angela 's ashes stands tall .
despite a few minor setbacks , it is a captivating story of people forced to live in the trenches by an merciless society where those of weaker character are shoved to the bottom of the financial ladder .
Output: P