Angela's Ashes

Opening with the lines, “It was, of course, a miserable childhood,” Alan Parker's Angela's Ashes announces its intention to be a faithful adaptation of its Pulitzer Prize-winning source material. Many critics have wondered aloud if Parker was the best choice for this material. After all, his record of accomplishment is decidedly mixed: for every poetic, engaging or majestic effort (Birdy, The Commitments, Mississippi Burning) there is a clumsy, ridiculous or self-consciously important one (Angel Heart, …

…the picture is appropriately presented in washed out tones of grey and beige. Angela's Ashes only fails as it moves toward conclusion. Parker indulges in a bit of manipulative trickery and cinematic short cutting that is rather shameful considering how consistently engaging and realistic his film had been up to that point. Still, this is an artistic success, notable for the stark and sensually potent set and the handful of fine performances at its centre.