Angela's Ashes

True to the book's squalor but also finding honest humor where it can.

Haunts the conscience, troubles the spirit.

Artfully evokes the physical realities of Irish poverty, but mostly misses the humor, lyricism and emotional charge of Frank McCourt's magical and magnificent memoir

As well-crafted and sensitive as it is, the movie remains one step removed from inspiration.

As with so many recent literary adaptations, it was the writing that was the art, not its infrastructure of plot and character.

A sharp and pungent distillation of the book. However, as far as the theme of childhood under duress goes, I found "My Life as a Dog" or the stridently Irish "Into the West" to be significantly more fulfilling.

The effect of the 2 1/2-hour film is deadening.