ANGELA’S ASHES

A biopic about a depressing life in a 1930s Irish alcoholic family, ANGELA’S ASHES depicts a miserable, damp, gray, bleak existence. The teenage hero’s only hope comes from the prospect of escaping the drudgery by emigrating to America. Eventually, his drunken father abandons the family, an abusive cousin demands sexual favors from his mother, and the boy steals money to buy passage on a boat to New York City. Although rife with literary value, the overall impact on viewers is depressing.

This autobiography spent two years on the New York Times bestseller list. Writer Frank McCourt may have summed up the principal impact of his book and this movie when he wrote, “When I look back on my childhood, I wonder how my brothers and I managed to survive at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood….Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood.” A searing tragedy about poverty and the hopelessness of alcoholism, ANGELA’S ASHES is well-directed and contains a couple redemptive moments. It also has, however, strong sexual content and depicts a miserable life of nearly unrelieved poverty and boredom.