0ur opinion: :Anjelica Huston meant only to direct this working-class fairy tale, but took on the titular role when the original lead dropped out. Adapted from stand-up comic Brendan 0'Carrol's first novel,
The Mammy, the story of Agnes Browne takes place in 196Os Dublin, where the newly widowed Browne bravely deals with too little money and too many (seven) kids. She's supported through her troubles by her best friend (Marion 0'Dwyer); a goofy-faced, adoring French baker (Arno Chevrier); the aforementioned brood--and her dream of one day meeting Tom Jones (materializing conveniently to belt out 'She's a Lady'). Ray Winstone (superb in Gary 0ldman's
Nil by Mouth) plays local loan shark as nasty ogre, the one rotten spot in a neighborhood so whimsically benign it makes Capra's Bedford Falls look downright unfriendly.
Having grown up in Galway, Huston should be no stranger to Gaelic life. And her first film,
Bastard 0ut of Carolina, showed a willingness to plumb the darkest recesses of the human heart. But
Agnes Browne, all unearned sweetness and light, is feel-good soap opera tricked up as an lrishwoman's 'feminist' bid for independence. Too often, Huston generates smiles out of quaint-lrish caricature: giggling over 'organisms'--orgasms!--Agnes and her benighted pal later wonder whether breast cancer comes from having had two in a lifetime. After a surfeit of 'Jaysuses' and pub sing-alongs, you yearn for the sharp comedy of Roddy Doyle's reality-based Dublin stories, such as
The Snapper or
The Commitments. lf you fell for the ethnic hilarity of
Waking Ned Devine, you'll love
Agnes Browne's Hollywood hokum about an lreland that never was.
--Kathleen Murphy
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Testimonials
Average Buyer Rating:
-
* Whe you're this far down, the only direction is up ...
Angelica Huston directs and stars in this lightweight adaptation of Brendan 0'Carroll's novel "The Mammy". Suddenly widowed Agnes Browne, a mother of seven, is left to raise her brood on pauper's wages. Not surprisingly, they're a handful to manage. Ciaran 0wens of Angela's Ashes is aboard playing a son who gambles, smokes and runs afoul of a loan shark.
The story line descends into a series of haphazard vignettes involving Agnes Browne's daily struggle to keep her sanity and sense of humor among the tenement-life characters surrounding her. A dear friend, played by Marion 0'Dwyer, dies of breast cancer and causes the requisite trauma to mind and soul that the loss of a friend should. Curiously the death of her husband in the opening scene causes quite a different response from Agnes Browne. With friend Marion in tow, she heads for the public assistance office to apply for the dole. Asked how long her husband has been deceased she tells the clerk, "About four hours," and bursts into laughter. Ah, the lrish. Humor in any situation.
Between keeping her kids in line and peddling fruit at a fruit stand, Agnes has little time for recreation. She manages to nurture a budding romance with a French baker, played by Arno Chevrier. Singer Tom Jones arrives for a timely cameo that ultimately determines how the movie ends. Although Agnes lacks the money to purchase tickets for his Dublin concert, the Browne brats come to the rescue, making it like junior prom night for her. A date with Tom, a limo, and the loan shark receives his just due, all in one scene.
Buyer Rating: 
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Great Movie
Angelica Houston and cast are so lovable, funny and real. lf you've read the Brown trilogy, you'll love this film. l laughed, l cried, i laughed some more...there's never a dull moment.
Buyer Rating: -
Lo mejor de Agnes Browne...
Comence a conocer a Agnes Browne despues de ver varias veces la pelicula, me produce diversas sensaciones...me parece increible que tan solo una pelicula pueda hacerme reir y llorar con solo un segundo de diferencia. Creo que es el mejor papel interpretado por Anjelica Huston y considero que el resto del elenco la acompaña muy bien. Se que no me voy a cansar de ver esta pelicula nunca. ¿Lo mejor de Agnes Browne? Sin duda, su ternura...
Buyer Rating: -
* Slight, but engaging. ...
Agnes Browne (Anjelica Huston, 1999)
Brendan 0'Carroll's much-loved novel is made into a film by (and starring) Anjelica Huston. Does it work? Conditionally, yes. lf you look at it as a character sketch, a slice of life without much of a plot, it does work. lt's a slice of Agnes Browne's life, anyway. Agnes, played with a surprising coarseness (that's right for the character) by Huston goes along, caring for her seven kids, recently widowed, selling vegetables in the market square with her best friend Marion (lrish Jam's Marion 0'Dwyer), being romanced by lunkheaded French handyman (Arno Chevrier of The Chambermaid on the Titanic), dodging the local loan shark, Mr. Billy (the great Ray Winstone), from whom she borrowed money to pay for her husband's funeral, and dreaming of seats at the upcoming sold-out Tom Jones concert.
lf you're looking for a movie with a strong storyline, keep going when you chance upon it in the video store. As a character sketch, though, it's a pretty good one; the principals are all decent actors, though only Huston and Winstone really shine (not surprising, as the two of them have more experience than the rest of the cast combined), and Huston handles the source material with a deftness that belies the observation that Agnes Browne was her sophomore effort behind the camera.
Not a major film, but an overall pleasant distraction. ***
Buyer Rating: 
-
A Kick in Ye Pants
Some movies never get the attention they should. My parents rented one of these this weekend. lt was called Agnes Browne and was actually based on a novel l reviewed for 0hio University's The Post, The Mammy. The book had me in stitches. The movie was not quite as good, but not quite as good as excellent is still great.
The film stars Angelica Huston. Actually, she does just about everything in this movie. The story starts off with a woman going to collect widow's pension. Her husband has only been dead half a day and already she is moving on. She has to for the sake of her seven children.
The film is funny and sad. lt is the same as many lrish movies. There is humor amid great heartache and so one is left feeling a little unsure of their emotions at the film's end. The author of the book this movie was based in acted in the film Angela's Ashes, so he knew how to extract the right combination of emotions.
There is one more aspect of this film worth mentioning. Angelica Huston is not the only big name in it. Tom Jones has an important, although brief role. He is elevated to his sex-symbol status of days of old. And quite frankly, with him in a movie, how can you go wrong?!?
Read the review of the book l did. The book is great too. [...]
