An international co-production between the United States, the United Kingdom, and Ireland,[1] it was co-written and directed by Alan Parker, and stars Emily Watson, Robert Carlyle, Joe Breen, Ciaran Owens, and Michael Legge, the latter three playing the Young, Middle, and Older Frank McCourt, respectively.
Frank McCourt and his family live in America, and his sister Margaret dies shortly after birth.
Frank's mother Angela slips into depression, his drunkard father Malachy Sr. leaves for several days and they are left without food.
The boys come home one day to find the downstairs has badly flooded, and their parents are upstairs where their new brother Michael has been born.
Angela gives birth to another baby, Alphonsus “Alphie”, and Frank's grandparents send money which Malachy Sr. wastes at the pub.
She sends Frank to the pub to loudly announce her husband’s failures in order to shame him into coming home.
When he arrives to collect his father, Frank decides not to try to bring him home as a man that would steal money meant for his baby is beyond help.
A composition he writes about Jesus being born in Limerick instead of Bethlehem so impresses the school to move him back into his grade.
Two days before Christmas, Angela is forced to beg for a food voucher again after Malachy Sr. fails to return from England.
Frank's grandmother dies of pneumonia going in the rain to ask her cousin Lamar Griffin for help and catching a cold in the process.
Frank's uncle buys him his first pint at the pub, and he returns home drunk singling the same songs his father used to.
The night before he leaves, his family witnesses a lunar eclipse and his uncle Pat tells him it is a sign of good luck.
[5] It expanded to 610 screens after four weeks of release when it finished tenth at the US box office with a weekend gross of $3.2 million.
The site's consensus states: "In spite of its attempts to accurately record Frank McCourt's memoirs, the onscreen adaptation fails to capture any of the drama or humor of his life".
In particular, he was said to excel in his role as an innocent teenager growing up with typical coming of age rites involving sexuality, maturity and peer pressure in a Catholic Irish setting.
[citation needed] The film soundtrack was composed and conducted by John Williams, and features songs by Billie Holiday and Sinéad O'Connor with narration on tracks 2, 4–15 and 17 by actor Andrew Bennett.
Angela's Ashes was originally released in the United Kingdom and Ireland on VHS and DVD format on 17 July 2000, via Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.
[10][11] The DVD set retained the film's original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, with Dolby Digital 5.1, and included a number of special features, including, a behind-the-scenes featurette, cast and crew interviews, commentaries by Alan Parker and Frank McCourt, and two trailers.
[15] On 31 October 2016, Angela's Ashes received its first-ever Blu-ray release via Final Cut Entertainment.