Angela’s Ashes is a film by Alan Parker, adapted from the autobiographical book by Frank McCourt, an American-Irish writer who spent his youth in Ireland. The film recounts his miserable childhood on the streets of Limerick, torn between an alcoholic and unemployed father, and a mother willing to do anything to help her family survive…
Angela’s Ashes
1935. The McCourt family lives in the Brooklyn district of America. The couple, Angela McCourt and Malachy Senior, had 4 sons and a daughter, including little Frank McCourt, who would later write his autobiography.
Already burdened with debt, the family lost their daughter, just 7 weeks old at the time. Crazy with grief and destitute, the McCourts decided to leave America and return to Ireland, at a time when poverty was at its worst on the island.
Angela, the mother, has family there, and hopes to find life-saving support in her. But the welcome remains cold. So the McCourt family moved into an underprivileged area of Limerick, where sanitary conditions were appalling. As a result of dampness, dirt and malnutrition, the McCourt couple lost 2 of their sons: twins Eugene and Oliver.
Then comes the question of finding the money to survive… The husband, Malachy, seems incapable and too cowardly to find work, and spends most of his unemployment income at the Pub, on a few pints of Irish beer… Angela, his wife, begs and asks her husband to leave for England to find work… Meanwhile, it’s up to Frank McCourt to help his family get by, although he has only one dream: to leave this nightmare behind and move to America…
The film paints a most disturbing portrait of Ireland, lifting the veil on the prevailing misery of those years… The film tackles various themes, including religion, alcoholism and social discrimination… The McCourt family is accumulating troubles, debts and illnesses as a result of being stuck in a damp, dirty ghetto where it’s impossible to find work…
Father McCourt’s recurrent alcoholism is just one of the symptoms of a sick and bloodless Ireland, unable to extricate itself from a socially unstable situation.
The film is divided into 3 main periods: the first is when Frank McCourt is 5, then 10, then 15. From the very first act, Frank McCourt shows himself to be too mature for his age: poverty has already robbed him of his innocence, and he doesn’t hesitate to lighten his parents’ load by taking care of his siblings himself.
At the age of 10, Frank McCourt was introduced to a strict religious upbringing, involving physical punishment and moral humiliation. He also discovered his love of literature, and was already developing a talent for writing. He watches helplessly as his father, unable to hold down a job and too egotistical to dare beg, acts…
At the age of 15, Frank McCourt saw his father abandon the marital home, cowardly abandoning his mother and brothers. So he decided to work, first in coal, then as a letter carrier… His mother helps him as much as she can, but only to a limited extent…
From then on, McCourt dreamed of independence, of America, and of earning enough money to buy a one-way ticket to New York…
The performances of Robert Carlyle (The Full Monty) and Emily Watson as the on-screen McCourt couple are to be commended. We see the duo gradually torn apart by sensitive issues such as money, work and the alcoholic impulses of McCourt’s father, who is far too overwhelmed to find a job and feed his own family.
We also salute the performance of the 3 children playing Frank McCourt throughout the 3 acts of the film. Their performance rings true and shakes us from start to finish.
4.50/5 (8 votes)
3.67/5 (9 votes)
