Jo's brash anger and tomboyish gaffs feel flattened into something more ladylike, and ultimately dull. Additionally, Allyson was thirty-three at the time she played fifteen-year-old Jo March. At more than twice the age of the character she portrays, Allyson strains all credulity as a coming-of-age heroine. These stale choices - from the casting to the direction - make the girls' growth feel arbitrary and artificial, much like the painted backdrops of this bland movie. June Allyson is a particular disappointment. Part of this is in the casting the sisters just don't feel like sisters, but instead competing star-powers with little connection to each other. It feels at once lethargic and over-acted, with stilted dialogue and forced relationships. While it is quaint and faithful enough to the book to be comforting for fans, it doesn't have the inherent warmth of the other adaptation higher on this list. The 1949 technicolor adaptation, directed by Mervyn LeRoy and starring June Allyson as Jo and Elizabeth Taylor as Amy, followed the same script as the 1933 version starring Katharine Hepburn.
#Little women 2019 movie#
Related: 2018's Little Women Movie Is The Weakest Adaptation 4. For viewers who can't stand period pieces, it is a serviceable dose of warm, holiday sentiment, but it's not really Little Women. Niederpruem's Little Women movie is not entirely without charm, however, particularly in the girlhood scenes between the sisters and Marmee. It's a poor substitute for Alcott's language which many of the other films higher on this list use to great effect, including iconic lines that are sorely missed in this adaptation. Additionally, the dialogue often feels stilted by its over-insistence of being modern and relatable. Fresh dialogue would be fine, but stuffy Aunt March cracking one-liners about millennials is maybe a bridge too far. This kind of character restructuring alters the meaning of the book, and will be baffling to anyone familiar with the source material. Professor Bhaer - a nerdy, older, and unattractive German intellectual in the original novel - is transformed by actor Ian Bohen into a slick, almost cocky leading man, while Grabeel's Laurie seems a clear second choice from the beginning. Niederpruem's choice to bring the March girls into a modern setting is a charming concept, but it fails in its execution.Ĭharacters are changed to the point of being near unrecognizable. Directed by Clare Niederpruem and staring Sarah Davenport as Jo, Lucas Grabeel of High School Musicalfame as Laurie, and Lea Thompson as Marmee, this modern retelling is the most unconventional adaptation on this list, but also one of the worst. Little Women (2018) is the most recent adaptation that will no doubt be compared to Gerwig's version. (Note: the Amazon Prime listing for this version is actually a TV episode of Westinghouse's Studio One.) Among the Little Women movie adaptations that still exist, here's how the rank against each other. Then, a year later, Paramount Pictures made the first American adaptation, directed by Harley Knoles and starring Dorothy Bernard and Conrad Nagel. Samuelson Productions made the first known Little Women movie, but it was lost to time. British director Alexander Butler and the long-defunct G. The first known movie adaptation was in 1917. Little Women is a foundational American novel, and one that is deeply important to fans who grew up alongside the March sisters. Perhaps that's why Little Women has been adapted time and time again. Related: Little Women 2019 Cast & Character Guide It's a beautiful story, and at its heart lie themes of women's self-determination, the centrality of family, the importance of sacrifice, and of staying true to one's authentic self. Ultimately, each girl finds her place in the world, and some even fall in love along the way. As they grow up, they face conflicts and misfortunes that shape the young women they become. Each girl has different talents and perspectives, all of which are encouraged by their loving mother, Marmee. In Alcott's landmark 1868 Little Women novel, four sisters - Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy March - grow up against the backdrop of poverty and the American Civil War.
#Little women 2019 full#
Ever since film broke out, there have been seven full movie adaptations - not including the many TV miniseries, plays, radio dramas, musicals, and so forth that the book has inspired - the latest of which is Greta Gerwig's 2019 Little Women movie. It's one of the most iconic American novels ever written and it continues to be a source of inspiration to this day. Louisa May Alcott's Little Women book has received several movie adaptations over the years, but determining which one is the best is a bit difficult.