Agnes Browne

I thoroughly enjoyed this directorial effort by Angelica Huston. Her acting, as well as that of the actress who plays Marion Monks, was outstanding.

Left a widow with seven children, Agnes Browne, is undaunted in her spunk and determination to rise above adversity. Agnes' best friend nearly steals the movie with her believable, heartwarming performance as the down-to-earth, pungently irreverent, Marion Monks.

The children, (all seven of them) never seem like actors. The French baker next door also adds flavor as the love interest.

Working-class Ireland in the poor section is seen realistically but with much more kindness and hope than Frank McCourt's world of Angela's Ashes.

Excellent and underrated film--highly recommended.

I think some of the others who commented on this movie were too harsh...it's not meant to be a human drama of great proportions. It's simply a fun, fairy tale that is a feel good movie. It's not made to make you think about the social plight of widowed Irish mothers in the 1960's...it's made to give you a good laugh and to leave a smile on your face.

And that it did. I particulary like the relationship between Agnes and Marion...I think it was a perfect display of women's relationships, and how they change and grow over time.

I admit I found the characters a bit "oirish" at times, but it was lovely and fun. I give it 7/10.

What I want to know is, what's up with Arno Chevrier's hippie-length hair in this movie? It's extremely long for 1967, yet not a single character comments on it. And Tom Jones, by the time this movie was filmed, was way too old to play the 1967 version of himself. By coincidence, I saw an actual Tom Jones performance from 1967 on an Ed Sullivan rerun the night before I saw AGNES BROWNE, and it almost didn't look like the same guy.

Now that I've got that off my chest, how was AGNES BROWNE? A little raunchier than I expected, in a chick-flick sort of way, also very sentimental and predictable-not that that's necessarily a bad thing. AGNES BROWNE is the cinematic equivalent of comfort food; it's not a challenging or particularly unusual film, but if you buy into it, it'll leave you with a nice warm feeling inside. And Dublin has never looked more beautiful on film.

One other thing-if you've seen SEXY BEAST, watch for Ray Winstone (`Gal') as Mr. Billy, the loan shark who terrorizes Agnes and her family. His performance is electrifying.

AGNES BROWNE (1999) **1/2 Anjelica Huston, Marion O' Dwyer, Ray Winstone, Tom Jones

(cameo). Huston, who also co-produced with filmmaker Jim Sheridan and

directs in her big-screen debut, gives it her all as stoic, decent

Irish mother of seven in Dublin circa 1967 whose adjustment to

widowhood takes its toll in her daily struggle to keep her brood

under wraps even as she attempts to enjoy her life as it proceeds.

Straight forward but no real sense of palpable tension even as it

dredges up the themes of death, poverty and an unsteady future.

This is an excellent picture of the life of working-class women on the housing estates ('projects' to Americans,probably as true now as in the 'sixties, as well as being a very good movie for women actors. The men are cyphers but the women and children are real enough. The colour is almost real (compared to Angela's Ashes), the dialogue believable, the dress and make-up accurate, in fact the design of the whole piece is convincing and satisfying visually and its sentimentality is not so sweet as to stick to back of the teeth. Anjelica Huston is unselfish. I have my doubts about Tom Jones' scenes at the end, but nothing's perfect. I find it growing on me as I look back on it.