When I look back at my childhood, the first line of Angela's Ashes is how my brothers and I managed to survive at all. They will also wonder how they ever survived when people look back on this film. The film's main flaw is that the length of two and a half hours goes at the pace of a death scene for Leslie Nielson. Misery likes company and seeks a lot of company in this study of this Irish misery to avoid this one excruciating error alone.
Source: IMDB.com
There is no other explanation for what happens in the first 30 minutes: three children die; filmmakers turn to this oldest, most melodramatic method not once, but three times. The job ventures away from the morbid and attempts to find a storyline, as though the film knows that there are only so many characters who can pass out. But there is none to be found; so deaths, just at a slower rate, resume. Hollywood's second-oldest emotional stunt is filling the longer holes now: the Alcoholic Father.
Angelas Ashes has a setting despite the lack of a plot: Ireland at a time when students could freely contemplate "What use is Euclid when the Germans are bombing everything in sight?" The production revolves around a young boy and his family. Angela's mother (Emily Watson, who is much too plump for this poverty-stricken role) has no qualms about picking coals off the street to warm up her often-sick family members.
Source: IMDB.com
Those who are not acquainted with the IRA, Oedipus and "The Consumption" may struggle with what little this highbrow movie offers. Those who prefer popcorn might struggle with a guilt trip while watching this film. Those fans of Monet would fail to have some appreciation of one of his paintings for a re-occurring scenery ripped out. Those of the non-anarchist persuasion may be struggling with the moral anti-debt film. Many with short or even average attention spans are going to struggle with the duration of the movie. Many who enjoy good films will struggle with the lack of quality overall. These hardships are not almost as bad as the poverty portrayed in Angela's Ashes, but there is still no incentive to expose yourself to them willingly, much less pay for them.