“I want to own my own book.”

From Little Women.

The March family is composed four daughters: the family-oriented Meg (Emma Watson), the strongly opinionated and focused Jo (Saoirse Ronan), the sweet Beth (Eliza Scanlen), and always-trying-to-act-older Amy (Florence Pugh).  The girls are drastically different in their personalities, opinions, and dreams, but the four are fiercely loyal from their years of playing and pretending together as children.  While their father (Bob Odenkirk) is away at war, the girls’ mother (Laura Dern) cares for the girls at home with the help of the cook (Jayne Houdyshell) and under the judgmental eye of the girls’ aunt (Meryl Streep), so while their mother struggles with helping the needy, the girls spend all their free time in the attic dreaming about who they will one day become.  The sisters are fascinated with daydreams of the people who live just on the outside of their life, such as the young Laurie (Timothée Chalamet) who moves in with his grandfather (Chris Cooper) next door and the tutor (James Norton) that is hired shortly thereafter.  As Jo struggles relentlessly to edit and publish stories, she begins to lose touch with her family and the magic of her childhood, instead pushing away one of her only friends (Louis Garrel).  It’s only when a sick Beth forces Jo to return home does Jo realize how much she has missed and how important it is to never give up on the magic of family.

 The newest (traditional) adaptation of the classic book is the perfect choice to draw new fans into the story. The cast is engaging and energetic, both with their individual characters and with the other actors. This version uses the same actors to play the girls through the entire film, which helps cement the characters, but the characters’ ages can seem a bit out of order. Little Women is engaging, heartfelt, and funny… everything the classic story should be.

| Rated: PG | Running Time: 135 minutes |Genre: drama/romance/adaptation |

||Family Viewing||Cursing: 0 of 10|Nudity: 0 of 10|Sexuality: 0 of 10|Gore: 0 of 10

|AVAILABLE FOR HOME VIEWING|