Synopsis:

Agnes Brown is a hard working mother of seven, barely making ends meet in a rather burned out section of 1967 Dublin, Ireland. One day her husband dies and her life gets all that worse. However, with her friend Marion's constant cheering, life seems almost bearable. Financially, she's in dire straits. With the death of her husband she has to turn to a particularly foul loan shark just to keep her head above water. As a parent, she can't be everywhere at once and that goes to make up another chapter in her story. With seven children, you would literally have to have eyes all over your body in order to see everything these kids are into! But, with the considerable help of her community and Marion's undying support, she's able to keep her brood in check. That is until one of them also becomes involved with the same Loan Shark. Only this latest client isn't even in his teens! All of these problems and more beset Agnes and it seems she has not a hope in the world. "Life finds away" and indeed so does joy in the face of sorrow and happiness in the face of fear and loathing. Agnes Brown is an incredible heart warming film about life in general and the little miracles that make life not only worth living but a joy indeed!

Audio/Video:

The audio for the feature is presented in a full sounding Dolby 2.0 platform. The audio is fairly rich in texture for a stereo presentation and does a great job conveying all of the aural nuances of the film. As the film is set in Dublin, the accents can be a bit hard to understand at times. An English Subtitle track is supplied and it makes for a much easier presentation.

The video for the film is presented in both full frame and widescreen. I selected the widescreen for my review and was very pleasantly surprised at the film's presentation. The colors are sharp and well defined and the fleshtones are accurate. I noticed only a couple of instances where there was a fleck of white that crossed the film in the lower right hand corner of the screen. Other than that I didn't notice any transfer errors. This was my first review of a USA Films release and if this is the kind of work we can expect from them then I'd say we have great things in store! Extras:

The extras on the disc are the film's trailer and cast and crew information from the film. The trailer is in widescreen and in very good shape.

Overall

Anjelica Huston does not get near enough recognition in that she is one of the premiere actors on the scene today. Her performance in Agnes Brown is stunning. This is a feel-good movie in every sense of the word. Great story with comic moments and excellently told with just the right amount of kitsch to put it over the top. It's Highly Recommended! I'll not be givin' ya tha Blarney!