Review of Little Women (1994) by Donna L — 22 Jan 2008

I thought this a solid, heart-warming film when it hit theatres in 1994, and still think so, having re-watched it on DVD. The unusually strong cast (Susan Sarandon, Gabriel Byrne, Winona Ryder, Claire Danes) makes both the March family and the historical period come alive.

In a world that is currently so distracted by appearances and trivialities, there's old-fashioned comfort in a movie in which an older sibling declares to a younger one: "I won't have a sister who's a lazy ignoramus". I can't think of a more pleasant way to be reminded that life was once much harder, more precarious, and more circumscribed than by watching a film set at a time in which an orange at Christmas was a treasure, when disease commonly claimed children's lives, when women weren't yet permitted to vote, and in which pregnancy was considered so taboo that proper young ladies refrained from mentioning it in letters written even to their sisters.

Gents, be assured however that this is not a feminist rant of a movie. When the sister's childhood male friend asks Jo, the aspiring writer: "Why is it Amy may paint china and you can scribble away, while I must manfully set my music aside" [in order to go into the family business] his question retains it's relevance and poignancy even now.