The Dead is a good film, undeniably, but its basis is the final short story of Dubliners, which is Joyce's most approachable work; everything afterwards was increasingly avant-garde, but Dubliners is at least written according to conventional rules of both English grammar and literature (though there's a lot going on behind the scenes).

(I personally very much enjoyed Portrait... and Ulysses - the latter is very difficult in places, but on the whole an astonishing achievement. I'm saving Finnegans Wake for my retirement.)