Angela's Ashes

PLOT: A boy grows up in impoverished Ireland. Based on a true story.
STARS: Emily Watson, Robert Carlyle, a bunch of different actors that I don't know
As with most movies based on books, the book is SO much better. It's the true story of Frank McCourt who grew up in Depression-era Ireland. The movie is gorgeously dreary but that's the problem--it's too gorgeous. This man's whole life is just one tragedy after another. He grew up in unbelievable poverty, most of the time having nothing to eat but lard and bread. He was sickly looking, not adorably handsome like the boys who play him in the film. You don't get a sense of how hard his life really was, how hard it was just to survive day to day. And you don't realize how much his father shaped his life even though he ends up being absent for a lot of it. Don't bother with the movie but DO read the book.