Angela's Ashes opens with the death of an infant. From there, life for the beleaguered McCourt family goes rapidly and relentlessly downhill. More children die. The father (Carlyle) spends on drink the paltry wages he makes at ever more occasional jobs. The mother (Watson), when she hasn't taken to her bed in depression, does her best to care for her young brood, but her good intentions can't make up for the lack of food, heat and clothing. The point of no return comes when Dad disappears with money earmarked to buy milk for yet another new baby. Eldest son Frank, still in knee pants himself, finds his father at the pub with his pockets as empty as the beer mugs in front of him. "A man who drinks the money for a baby has gone beyond the beyond," Frank says in a voice-over.
So too has gone the overwhelmingly bleak Angela's Ashes, a beautifully photographed but dramatically inert adaptation of Frank McCourt's lyrical bestselling 1996 memoir of the same name. McCourt wrote movingly about growing up poor in Brooklyn and then Ireland during the 1930s and 1940s, but his tale of a family afflicted by grinding poverty, illness and alcoholism was leavened on every page with humor. The movie, as lachrymosely cowritten and directed by Alan Parker (Evita), is just one big downer. That it rains buckets in nearly every scene doesn't help.
Watson and Carlyle each have affecting moments, but neither can escape the damp grimness that envelops the movie. Of the three young actors who play Frank at various ages, the middle one (Ciaran Owens) is the standout, with expressive eyes that can go from impish to woebegone in nothing flat. (R)
Bottom Line: Irish eyes are crying-endlessly
Antonio Banderas, Woody Harrelson, Lolita Davidovich, Lucy Liu
January and February have become the dumping ground for once-promising movies that, upon completion, stink worse than an old gym bag. Case in point: Play It to the Bone, a rambling, pointless buddy film about prizefighters. Writer-director Ron Shelton shows far less spring in his sneaker here than he did in his previous real-guys-sweat dramas Bull Durham, Tin Cup and White Men Can't Jump.
In Bone, Harrelson and Banderas play washed-up boxers who are best buds. If they can make it from L.A. to Las Vegas by nightfall, they will be paired on the undercard of a Mike Tyson fight. The two sweet-talk Davidovich, a flinty dame who is dating Banderas but was previously Harrelson's honey, into giving them a ride in her convertible. Much raunchy dialogue and all 10 rounds of a match between Banderas and Harrelson—the outcome is never in doubt—follow. The two male leads seem to be enjoying themselves and sock each other convincingly, but even the fight scenes lack punch. (R)
Bottom Line: Down for the count
Kevin Bacon, Frankie Muniz
Featured attraction
One doesn't have to love dogs (and I'm not admitting to anything here) to be won over by this sweet, nostalgic family film in which a boy bonds with a Jack Russell terrier he receives for his 9th birthday in 1942. My Dog Skip, based on a 1995 memoir by Willie Morris, chronicles how the dog's love and loyalty helped transform wee Willie from a shy, friendless boy to an outgoing, self-confident youth. Muniz (TV's Malcolm in the Middle) makes an appealing pint-sized hero, while Bacon and Diane Lane give assured performances as the boy's stern but loving father and sassy, easygoing mother. (PG)
Bottom Line: Warm and cuddly as a new puppy
>Anna and the King
Only okay. Jodie Foster and sexy Chow Yun-Fat star in a nonmusical version of The King and I—the songs are missed. (PG-13)
The Cider House Rules Compelling coming-of-age drama follows a young man (Tobey Maguire) as he sets out from a Maine orphanage to see the world. (PG-13)
Galaxy Quest
Great, silly fun. Tim Allen and Sigourney Weaver are ex-stars of a Star Trek-like TV series who find meaning in their lives when real aliens come calling. Played for laughs—and gets 'em. (PG)
The Green Mile Tom Hanks is always watchable, but three hours plus is hard time to serve for this draggy death-row drama based on a Stephen King novel. (R)
The Hurricane Powerhouse performance by Denzel Washington as real-life wrongly jailed boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter. Movie is manipulative but will have you cheering by the end. (R)
Man on the Moon Biopic about oddball comic Andy Kaufman (Jim Carrey) never answers the key question: Who was this guy, and why exactly did he do such weird stuff? (R)
Next Friday Not worth seeing this Friday or any day of the week. Rapper Ice Cube wrote and stars in a dumb comedy about a homeboy's misadventures in the suburbs. (R)
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
