Angela's Ashes

1999
UK
2h 28min
15

Directed by: Alan Parker
Cast: Emily Watson, Robert Carlyle, Michael Legge, Ciaran Owens, Joe Breen

Frank McCourt's Pulitzer Prize-winning childhood memoir of Limerick in the 30s is a publishing phenomenon, loved across the world by those with no connection to the book's three defining elements - Ireland, Catholicism and poverty. Parker can't establish the same level of engagement as McCourt does, but he can train his lens on the faces of his remarkable cast to show a texture of emotions. Sentiment here is a natural ingredient, not a saccharine additive.