Angela's Ashes is based on a 1999 memoir of the same name by Irish-American author Frank McCourt. Both the novel and movie detail his experiences growing up in the impoverished slums of Limerick Ireland during the time of the Great Depression. McCourt was, strangely enough, born in NYC but his parents decided to pack up the family and move back to Ireland upon the death of their infant daughter. When the baby dies, Angela (Frank's mother) shuts down completely and is unable to care for her other four children. Some less than helpful relatives intervene and soon they are on a boat. The deaths of McCourt's three siblings (two the result of disease and malnutrition) provides for some of the most haunting imagery. I think back on the scene where one of Angela's beautiful twin boys lies white in death on her bed as she cuddles him in her arms. In another particularly poignant scene, ten-year-old Frank goes looking for his drunkard father Malachy in a pub and sees him drinking right on top of his dead baby's casket. It's scenes like this that make Angela's Ashes such a heart rending experience. It would have been easy for this film to turn into nothing but a couple hours of despair, but thankfully, McCourt has a good sense of humor and filled his memoir with plenty of comedic anecdotes to be sprinkled here and there.
Review of Angela's Ashes
