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Although I believe people when they say that this movie does
not recreate the same depth of feeling that is generated by
Frank McCourt's autobiographical novel, this movie is still
a fairly moving account of one boy's hard life in a poor Irish
family.
This story recounts the story of Frankie McCourt from his early
childhood leaving Brooklyn NY to return to Ireland and a decade
or so of his life in the rundown lanes of Limerick. The hardship
he experiences includes coping with early death of three of
his siblings, seeing his father (Robert Carlyle) drinking away
what money the family does have, and mother (Emily Watson) having
to sleep with one of their roughneck landlords.
To portray Frank as he grows up, director Alan Parker has had
to resort to the awkward tactic of using three different actors
playing the same role. This works passably with credit due to
the young actors involved, with the youngest (Joseph Breen)
giving an especially powerful performance.
Throughout, Parker has managed to create a powerful picture
of the hardship of life in this place and time with the entire
setting being created specially for the film. Most of all we
get the overpowering sense that life was simply WET. It seems
to always be raining and most buildings seem to have leaks in
the roofs.
The disappointing aspect of this movie is that we somehow don't
seem to get to the very depths of some of the main characters.
This is strange because the whole film is supposed to be about
these characters and because we have high expectations of performers
like Carlyle and Watson. Yet all we get about Frank's parents
is that his Dad, Malachy is too proud to beg but too useless
to hold onto a job or money and we get even less about what
his mother Angela is really about.
For me though the most rewarding part about seeing this film
is simply to make me thankful that I did not grow up in a family
like Frank's and to make me more grateful for the things that
I do have.
Overall a pretty powerful movie, but don't expect it to be
as powerful as the book. Don't see it if you are planning to
move to Limerick.
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