Review of Little Women (2019) by Bhbarry — 28 Dec 2019

“Little Women” was written and directed by Greta Gerwig and stars Saoirse Ronan, Laura Dern, Emma Watson and a very forgettable total of 5 minutes of Meryl Streep.

Based on Louisa Mae Alcott’s novel the film does an injustice to the audience to which it is being exhibited. The large sums the producers spent on promoting the film would have been better utilized in the hiring of a strong editor and an additional writer for the movie is in dire need of a better script and better editing. The scenes depicting the characters and the years in which the events in their lives take place go back and forth so many times that the viewer has to rely upon the hairdos of the sisters in order to try to determine the proper chronology. Casting here is also subject to criticism since Bob Odenkirk (“Better Call Saul”) does not fit the image of the father of the girls nor does Chris Cooper (with enough makeup on to make a teenager look like Methusaleh) make a credible elderly neighbor. Both roles would have been better played by lesser known actors with no prominent identification problems.

I give the film a 5.0 rating with a special reward to the Public Relations person since he or she did a better job of hyping the film than did its writer-director in making it.