Review of Little Women (1994) by Harry W — 31 Mar 2013

Little Women was to be a specialty film for me. Not because of my development into womanhood because I'm a little male for that, but rather because it featured 2 of my favourite actresses, Winona Ryder in an Academy Award nominated performance, and Susan Sarandon. Also, because its adapted from a novel considered a classic, so the source material would be of top quality.

And honestly, my heart opened to it the instant the beautiful musical score started within the intro and all the Little Women came and hugged Margaret "Marmee" March and embraced the true heart of a family.

Gillian Armstrong's adaptation of the Louisa May Alcott is taught with skill, and handles the drama beautifully. It's also enhanced by excellent costumes, makeup and hairstyling, as well as an incredibly excellently composed musical score which within few seconds manages to achieve the classical tone feel that the story requires. And in the end, the thing most perfect about Little Women is the cast.

Honestly, it's a rare experience that a film other than a film by someone such as Paul Thomas Anderson is so completely perfectly cast.

Winona Ryder pours her heart and soul into Little Women, and gives nothing short of one of her greatest performances. You can see the entire soul of Josephine "Jo" March through Winona Ryder's eyes, and so you can't help but love her and feel empathetic for her, because Winona Ryder gives no reason why you shouldn't.

Susan Sarandon is just the supporting actress that Little Women needs, because she's such a talented actress with a level of sweetness that never had to come with her age as it has been there even as far back as her 1975 stint on The Rocky Horror Picture Show. She balances all the complications of the chemistry between Marmee's daughters with perfect scriptural delivery and heart, and she practically becomes the guardian angel of all the Little March Women, so it's quite a treat to have her in Little Women.

Christian Bale provides a great charming male performance to Little Women as Theodore "Laurie" Lawrence, and shows the promise of talent that he used in many films later on, because his juvenile character is as mature and smart as an actor would have to actually be to play him, and Christian Bale was perfect for it.

Claire Danes truly captures the heart of Beth March, a talented and sweetly hearted girl that must face some of the hardest challenges that not a woman, but a human being must change and so the result requires a strong performance that may create a character for the audience to attach to, and Claire Danes' performance proves massively successful.

Kirsten Dunst at a young age of 12 gives such a charming and sweet young performance that has the charm of an actress having spent 60 years experiencing roles, which is just wonderful.

Trini Alvarado also gives the characters good support and is another good sister for the audiences to attach to.

Little Women succeeded largely because it did for me what the original novel would have done for many people back in its release days: it provided me insight into the mind of young women in a realistic fashion and dealt with the drama of the situations they may be forced to deal with, and was never sexually biased about either gender which is refreshing.

So it's safe to say that the novel Little Women has beaten the battle of age because this film proves that it can achieve what the novel could, and so could Winona Ryder herself in a performance worth nothing short of an Academy Award nomination.