LITTLE WOMEN : Thursday 6th February 2020.

I saw the G Rated 'LITTLE WOMEN' at the Open Air cinema at Mrs. Macquarie's Point in Sydney last week and this American coming-of-age period drama film is written for the screen and Directed by Actress, Screenwriter and now second time film maker following 2017's highly acclaimed 'Lady Bird', Greta Gerwig. This is the eighth big screen adaptation of the 1868 novel of the same name by Louisa May Alcott. The film cost US$40M to produce, has so far grossed US$177M, was released in the US on Christmas Day, and has garnered universal acclaim from Critics. The film has so far picked up 67 award wins and a further 177 nominations from around the awards and festivals circuit including Six Academy Award nods, two Golden Globe nominations, and a BAFTA win and four other nominations.

The film opens up in 1868 and we see Jo March (Saoirse Ronan) as a New York teacher and budding writer. She visits Mr. Dashwood (Tracy Letts) and presents him with an article she has written that she is looking to have published in his magazine. Mr. Dashwood scans the article and agrees to publish her work but not until Jo has done some considerable editing to the piece to make it more reader friendly. He pays her US$25, and Jo leaves very happy.

Her sister Amy (Florence Pugh), is in Paris with their Aunt March (Meryl Streep), and notices childhood friend Laurie (Timothee Chalamet) one day walking through a park. She invites him to a party. At the party, she becomes angry over Laurie's drunken behaviour and he scolds her in front of all the other invited guests for spending time with wealthy businessman, Fred Vaughn (Dash Barber).

In New York, Jo meets with Friedrich Bhaer (Louis Garrel), a professor infatuated with her. Jo asks Friedrich to critique her work and when he offers constructive criticism Jo takes it personally and ends their friendship. Following this, Jo receives a letter saying that her younger sister Beth (Eliza Scanlen) has become more sick, and so she returns home to be at her side and help nurse her back to health.

We then go back to 1861 in Concord, Massachusetts, and Jo and her older sister Meg (Emma Watson) go to a party where Jo meets Laurie, the grandson of their neighbour Mr. Laurence (Chris Cooper). On Christmas morning, their mother 'Marmee' (Laura Dern) persuades the girls to give their lavish breakfast to their poor neighbour, Mrs. Hummel and her four starving young children. They do so, albeit somewhat reluctantly, and when they return to their own home, the girls see their table full of food, provided by Mr. Laurence, together with a letter from their father fighting in the American Civil War, saying, amongst other things, how he misses his four 'little women'.

Jo later visits their Aunt March, who invites Jo to travel to Europe with her on an extended stay. One evening Meg, Jo, Laurie and John Brooke (James Norton), Laurie's tutor and Meg's eventual husband, go out to the theatre, leaving a jealous Amy behind at home. Jo hides the manuscript of a novel she has been working on in her bedroom in a chest of drawers. An angry Amy go searching for the manuscript, finds it and burns it out of spite, upsetting Jo when she discovers it missing. The pair get into a fight after Amy admits burning it, which is quickly broken up by their sisters and mother. Amy attempts to apologise but Jo will have none of it. The next day Amy, wanting to make amends with Jo, chases her onto a frozen over lake where Jo and Laurie are ice skating. The two skate over to rescue Amy when the ice breaks below her feet and she falls into the frozen water. That night, Jo expresses guilt to her mother over what happened to Amy.

We then fast forward back to 1868 and Laurie visits Amy to apologise for his behaviour at the party. Subsequently he urges Amy not to marry Fred Vaughn, but to marry him instead. Amy is upset at playing second fiddle to Jo for just about everything, including Laurie. Amy later turns down Fred's proposal only to learn that Laurie has left for London.

Back in the past, Marmee, is informed by letter that her husband and the girls father is ill from the effects of the Civil War. She reluctantly visits their father, for fear of leaving the four girls to fend for themselves. Beth is given the piano from Mr. Laurence, as her playing reminds him of her dead daughter, and he cannot abide to see the piano at which she used to play go to waste. Beth soon afterwards contracts scarlet fever. Amy, who has not had the disease before, is sent to stay with Aunt March. Marmee comes home early when Beth gets worse, but she recovers in time for Christmas, with their father (Bob Odenkirk) returning home too, surprising the girls. However, in the present, Beth's condition starts to deteriorate, and she dies.

On Meg's wedding day Jo tries to convince her to run away, and not proceed with the wedding, but Meg tells her she is happy getting married, opting for a life of security, stability and the love of a good man. Aunt March announces her trip to Europe, but decides to take Amy instead of Jo. After the wedding, Laurie opens up about his feelings for Jo, but she insists she does not feel the same way, and that their marriage would never work.

Soon afterwards Jo begins to wonder if she was too quick in turning Laurie down and writes him a letter, expressing her change of heart. On their way back from Europe with a sick Aunt March, Amy tells Laurie she turned down Fred's proposal of marriage. The two kiss and soon after marry on the journey home. Returning home, Laurie catches up with Jo and breaks the news. Jo is inwardly devastated but outwardly as stoic as ever, and they agree to just be friends. Jo returns to the letterbox and retrieves the letter she wrote for Laurie, tears it up and tosses it into the stream beside the house.

The next day, Jo starts work on a novel based on the lives of her and her sisters. She dispatches the initial chapters to Mr. Dashwood, who is seemingly unimpressed. Bhaer turns up at the March house to bid the family and Jo in particular farewell, as he is on his way to California to teach. Mr. Dashwood in the meantime has agreed to publish her book, but finds it unacceptable that the main character was unmarried. Jo amends her ending so that the main character, herself, chases after Bhaer in the rain and catches up with him at the Concord railway station, and stops him from going to California. She successfully negotiates copyright and royalties with Mr. Dashwood.

Later, after the death of Aunt March, Jo inherits her house and decides to open it as a school. Meg teaches acting and Amy teaches art to the young schoolchildren. Bhaer is also seen to be teaching children. Jo looks on at a printing and binding press as printers run off the first editions of her book, titled 'Little Women'.

It's easy to see why and how Great Gerwig's adaptation of the classic 'Little Women' novel has garnered such widespread critical acclaim. The production values are top notch from the horse drawn carriages, the grand piano's, the wide skirts and dresses and the detail in the homes of that era to the outstanding performances of the principle cast noting especially Ronan, Pugh and Chalamet, with honourable mentions going to Dern, Streep, Cooper and Letts also in the limited screen time they do have, but which make their performances no less effective. And the story is handled with a deft touch by Gerwig whose modern interpretation of the timeless classic presents us with an up to date coming of age story, female empowerment, endearing sisterhood and the power of a tight knit family unit, all wrapped up in a period piece set some 150 years ago. Despite all these positives and those thrust upon the film from Critics the world over, I found the time shifting premise of the film a little confusing and irritating, not knowing if I was watching a scene from 1861/2 or 1868/9 at times. That said, if you are able to get over this, then this is a smart, modern and creative retelling of a nostalgic period in American (fictional) history, that should easily delight the young and old, both the female and male audience, and those familiar with the source material, or those viewing for the first time.

'Little Women' warrants four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard out of a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-