The McCourts of Limerick

Truth of the matter? Not all of the McCourts are as talented or interesting as Frank, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Angela's Ashes and the slated-for-September 1999 follow-up ‘Tis. His brother Malachy has been critically raked over the proverbial coals for his memoir A Monk Swimming and now Malachy's son, Conor, brings us this ineptly made documentary about Ireland's most famous contemporary dysfunctional family. The program jumps in utterly hodgepodge fashion from an introduction of the four McCourt brothers--Frank, Malachy, Michael and Alphonsus--to brief segments on the now infamous alcoholic father and long-suffering mother, before journeying over to Limerick with Frank for a jaunt down the mean streets of his youth. Throughout, the poor viewer is hit with a barrage of unrelated and badly edited film clips during interviews which run the gamut from entertaining and moving (Malachy, Frank) to whining and humorless (Michael, Alphonsus). While some of the anecdotes are funny, and others interesting, viewers may be a little shocked at the still-festering rancor against the Irish Catholic church, occasionally expressed in scatological terms here. Readers of Angela's Ashes will surely want to see this buffed-up home video, but they're likely to be somewhat disappointed. Optional. Aud: P. (R. Pitman)