This movie I could watch over and over....Frank McCourt's novel was so moving, I had to see this film. It is was of the best films ever!!!

Frank and Malachy McCourt as children were living in poverty with their parents in New York, such destitution that the family was forced to return to poverty-stricken Ireland in order to survive. They were one of the few Irish families that viewed the Statue of Liberty on their way out of the harbor instead of coming in.
Their father was a good man with serious flaws. He was unable to find work, and whenever he got some extra money, he spent it on booze rather than on his family. He was not an abusive drunk, but a pernicious one nevertheless. The mother was strangely passive at times. They lived in gray, dreary Limerick where it seemed always to be raining, and a pool of water sat in the downstairs of their house. The two brothers somehow thrived despite the gloomy life. Seeing them running through puddles, splashing each other, remaining somehow buoyant, helps to save the movie. Frank's confessions to various priests are priceless humor.
In many ways this is a grim, sad story, but bursts of humor, great acting, and occasional evidences of humanity and generosity save it from descending into a completely depressing movie. Frank's days at school with the Catholic brothers are fascinating. The teachers rail against the British who dominated Ireland for so long.
It is a story of transcendence over poverty. Based on Frank's book, it spares nothing as it shows the struggles he had to go through in life. The family faced deaths, debts, and a society that had little use for a family that had failed and returned from the city where the streets were paved with gold. The movie is made richer by those who have read the book.
Nine Lives Too Many
The Daemon in Our Dreams
The Rice Queen Spy
Clawed Back from the Dead

this is a book that you do not want to keep returning to the library, get one of your own, it is that great!!! also "tis"by the same author: frank mc court. but be wary, you may book a flight to limeric, ireland!

Frank McCourt has a way with words! His memoir of growing up poor in Ireland, with a drunk for a father and lazy, shiftless mother is written without malice. He and his brothers are left to their own devices to keep themselves fed, warm and clothed when Frank, the oldest is not even four years old. They live in a house where the main floor floods every year and they have to wade through the sewage to live in the remaining room upstairs until the water recedes. They grow so cold that they resort to tearing the walls apart for firewood. And yet his mother needs her cigarettes and his father needs his drink.

Frank's tenacity and humor in the midst of such misery is his salvation. And it is what makes this memoir so poignant. His own parents and grandparents, neighbors and the Catholic church leave Frank and his brothers to their own devices for survival. And they survive! And go to America. And it's a true story.

This movie is worth watching once. I had not read the book, so I had no idea what to expect. It is arguably one of the most depressing and bleak movies I have ever seen. Poverty is rampant in this movie and I dont think it ever stopped raining through the movie. It didnt escape me that the only speck of noticeable color in the movie is Angelas coat. The acting is magnificent and the sets were very well done and believable.