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Angela's Ashes
Paramount Pictures
FILM:
MPAA RATING: R for sexual content and some language
Starring
Emily Watson,
Robert Carlyle,
Joseph Breen,
and
Joe Breen
Based on the best selling autobiography by Frank McCourt, Angela's Ashes is the story of young Frankie and his siblings being raised in abject poverty in the slums of Limerick.
| GENRE(S): |
Drama
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Frank McCourt (book)
Laura Jones
Alan Parker
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Alan Parker
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: July 18, 2000
Video: July 18, 2000
Theatrical: December 22, 1999
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
145 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA / Ireland |
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
88
New York Post
Jonathan Foreman
Lacks the humor and charm that fills the book and makes it so much more than a catalog of suffering.
88
USA Today
Mike Clark
True to the book's squalor but also finding honest humor where it can.
85
TNT RoughCut
Christopher Brandon
I didn't want it to end. I could have easily sat there for another two-and-a-half hours to find out what happens next.
75
Portland Oregonian
Shawn Levy
At times an uneasy mix of cold-eyed neorealism and soft-headed sentimentality, but after its initial struggles it presents itself as a moving film, made with loving craft, a painterly eye and luscious language.
75
San Francisco Examiner
Walter Addiego
The author calls the movie "perfect" - reassurance that the director hasn't tried to pull any fast ones.
75
Chicago Tribune
Michael Wilmington
Haunts the conscience, troubles the spirit.
75
New York Daily News
Jack Mathews
The question is not whether the movie exactly duplicates the experience of the book, but whether the movie stands on its own. Angela's Ashes clearly does.
75
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
It really gets gloomy.
75
Miami Herald
Curtis Morgan
Something of Angela's Ashes does gets lost in translation -- mainly, its fiercely funny voice.
75
Philadelphia Inquirer
Desmond Ryan
Parker has honored the core of the work and in the process turned a great memoir into a memorable movie.
70
Los Angeles Times
Kenneth Turan
If this beautifully made if flawed film sends people back to his book, it will have done good work for sure.
70
Salon.com
Stephanie Zacharek
Dramatic, massive in scale, at times very moving. And yet, somehow, it comes up short in terms of essential poetry.
70
Variety
Todd McCarthy
Artfully evokes the physical realities of Irish poverty, but mostly misses the humor, lyricism and emotional charge of Frank McCourt's magical and magnificent memoir
63
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
What is wonderful about Angela's Ashes is Emily Watson's performance, and the other roles that are convincingly cast.
63
Boston Globe
Jay Carr
While the film dutifully reproduces many incidents from the book, it lacks the spirit and vitality of its source. And - no small problem - it lacks McCourt's voice knitting the vignettes together.
60
The New York Times
Janet Maslin
Not since the latest fashion layout flirted with arty desolation, has misery looked this fabulously pristine.
60
Newsweek
David Ansen
As well-crafted and sensitive as it is, the movie remains one step removed from inspiration.
60
TV Guide
Maitland McDonagh
Parker's adaptation is meticulous, unsentimental, beautifully acted-- but nearly two and a half hours worth of dying babies, rain-spattered streets, ragged children and filthy, bug-infested rooms is a bit oppressive.
59
Mr. Showbiz
Cody Clark
If Parker had aimed more at capturing the author's unique voice, and worried less about getting the details right, his movie might have been extraordinary as well.
58
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
William Arnold
It's the first film I know of in which we get to see all five of the top-billed actors vomit
50
Baltimore Sun
Ann Hornaday
As with so many recent literary adaptations, it was the writing that was the art, not its infrastructure of plot and character.
50
Austin Chronicle
Steve Davis
For those who adore McCourt's work, Angela's Ashes will most likely disappoint; for those unfamiliar with this inspiring chronicle of a survivor, it will neither impress nor dishearten to any degree.
50
LA Weekly
Ella Taylor
140 minutes of flat vignette, as dreary and uninvolving as the driving rain that never lets up on the benighted streets of Limerick.
50
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
The end result smacks more of Hollywood melodrama than true compassion for the suffering poor.
50
Slate
David Edelstein
Has anyone involved in this disaster ever heard a real story?
42
Entertainment Weekly
Owen Gleiberman
Seems populated yet uninhabited; the only real star is the gloom.
40
Dallas Observer
Gregory Weinkauf
A sharp and pungent distillation of the book. However, as far as the theme of childhood under duress goes, I found "My Life as a Dog" or the stridently Irish "Into the West" to be significantly more fulfilling.
30
Village Voice
Amy Taubin
Lacks development and dramatic coherence.
30
Film.com
Peter Brunette
Never more than a dull, paint-by-numbers, overly literal transcription of the book.
30
Chicago Reader
Lisa Alspector
If misery were inherently interesting, this adaptation starring Emily Watson and Robert Carlyle as a couple plagued by alcoholism and child mortality might be too.
30
Washington Post
Rita Kempley
In the translation from page to film, the life seems to have gone out of the story
25
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
The effect of the 2 1/2-hour film is deadening.
 The average user rating for this movie is 6.0 (out of 10) based on 7 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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