Little Women 2018

      This film is based upon the novel Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.  Four sisters have grown up living with purpose and supporting each other.  Things are changing now that the sisters are growing up.  Jo has left for New York and she is determined to publish a novel.  Beth becomes ill and Jo comes home to comfort Beth.  The only thing Beth asks for is a story from Jo.  Beth had been using a neighbor’s piano and practicing.  Mother Marmee intervenes when Jo and Amy have clashs.  Also, Marmee and the sisters gather in front of the computer to talk to Papa calling from Iraq. 

     There is so much going on at every minute that this is difficult to watch!!  Everyone seems to be going in different directions all the time?  It’s not at all soothing like the 1949 film with June Allyson, Janet Leigh, Margaret O’Brien, Judy Garland and Elizabeth Taylor.  Or the 1994 film with Winona Ryder, Kirsten Dunst, Samantha Mathias, Trini Alvarado, Claire Danes, Susan Sarandon.   2 ½* (This movie was so-so)

112 min, Drama directed by Clare Niederpruem with Sarah Davenport, Lea Thompson, Allie Jennings, Melanie Stone, Ellis Jones, Lucas Grabeel, Taylor Murphy, Ian Bohen, Bart Johnson, Barta Heiner, Stuart Edge, Michael Flynn, Aimee Lynne Johnson, Claire Covey, Reese Oliveira.

Note:  Imdb 4.6 out of 10, Rotten Tomatoes 29% critic 76% audience, Roger Ebert 3*, IndieWire 2* out of 5* Kate Erbland, Metacritc 64 out of 100 with 18 critics,

Special Note:  This film is PG 13 because of teen drinking and violence (a sister falls from a horse).  The release of this film in 2018 coincided with the novel’s 150^th anniversary publishing date of Little Women.  The novel was set in the Civil War and Papa March is an Army Chaplain.  A Catholic Organization, Paulist Productions, produces this version and Papa’s job was changed to an Army Surgeon.  A picture of Louisa May Alcott on the cover of a biography appears on the bookshelf in the library where Jo and Freddy converse.  Filming was done in Salt Lake City, Utah.  There is another modern adaptation of Little Women 2019 in post-production with Director Greta Gerwig, Florence Pugh, Emma Watson, Timothee Chalamet, Saoirse Ronan, Meryl Streep, Laura Dern.