ADVERSITY NOT ENOUGH IN `AGNES'.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

Anjelica Huston clearly enjoys pretending to have a miserable Irish life in ``Agnes Browne,'' her first directing effort intended for the big screen (her earlier ``Bastard Out of Carolina'' was initially produced as a cable TV movie).

Huston plays the title character, a kind of Dublin Mother Courage who unexpectedly finds herself a widow with seven children still to raise, as a none-too-bright but salt-of-the-earth sort, always ready to face down abject poverty with a laugh, a pint and all the persevering love known to woman.

There's really nothing dislikable about the film, which is opening for one week for Academy Award consideration, but that's sort of its failing. It goes down too easily, its emotional proteins all seemingly predigested. Though nicely acted and engaging in the most undemanding of ways, the movie finally self-destructs with an intended triumphal climax that plays more like farce, undercutting whatever small dramatic momentum it has managed to build up until then.

Based on Brendan O'Carroll's popular Irish novel ``The Mammy,'' the story juggles the usual we're-poor-but-we-stick-together blarney with road-proven female empowerment cliches. Agnes has been so busy raising her brood in mid-'60s Dublin that when her husband abruptly keels over, she doesn't even know how to explain her predicament to the welfare office.

Always bolstered by Marion (Marion Monks, in a solid if sentimentalized screen debut), her fireplug of a best friend who operates a street produce stall next to Agnes, the middle-age widow gradually learns how to fend for herself and her children - and, to her great surprise if not ours, to engage life in a way she'd forgotten how.

Though indebted to a smarmy neighborhood loan shark (Ray Winstone, the reigning film master of lower-class British menace), Agnes has the amorous interest of the new French baker in town and the chance to see her idol, Tom Jones, perform to keep her spirits buoyant.

Her kids, of course, cause all kinds of trouble, but they're all so fundamentally affectionate and supportive that, of course, ya gotta love 'em. A Calamitous Disease is tossed in to distract us at times when we'd otherwise realize that the story isn't really going anywhere, and taking its sweet time at that.

Still, for those who enjoy Celtic schmaltz laced with warm vulgarity, ``Agnes Browne'' is the stew for you. Huston, who spent much of her childhood in Ireland, clearly brings heartfelt affection to every frame and brogue-inflected attitude she composes here.

But with inevitable comparisons to the rougher, more imaginative and challenging adaptation of Frank McCourt's ``Angela's Ashes'' looming, you wish Huston would have erred on the side of sociological rigor rather than nostalgic idealization.

The whole Tom Jones thing, though amusing in its way, needed serious rethinking, too.

The facts

The film: ``Agnes Brown'' (R; language, mild violence, children in jeopardy).

The stars: Anjelica Huston, Marion O'Dwyer, Niall O'Shea, Ciaran Owens, Ray Winstone and Tom Jones.

Behind the scenes: Directed by Anjelica Huston. Written by John Goldsmith and Brendan O'Carroll, based on O'Carroll's novel ``The Mammy.'' Produced by Jim Sheridan, Arthur Lappin, Greg Smith and Huston. Released by USA Films.

Running time: One hour, 32 minutes.

Playing: AMC Century 14 in Century City for one week Oscar-qualifying run.

Our rating: Two and one half stars.

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Photo

Photo: Best friends Agnes (Anjelica Huston, center) and Marion (Marion O'Dwyer) share a rare evening out on the town in ``Agnes Browne.''