{"id":19727,"date":"2019-12-24T23:37:05","date_gmt":"2019-12-25T07:37:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=19727"},"modified":"2019-12-24T23:37:05","modified_gmt":"2019-12-25T07:37:05","slug":"little-women-puts-a-few-new-spins-on-a-literary-classic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=19727","title":{"rendered":"LITTLE WOMEN Puts A Few New Spins on a Literary Classic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/24_0008_B-merged.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-10620\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I\u2019ll be honest and admit that I\u2019m likely not the target\naudience for <em>Little Women<\/em>. It was not part of my school curriculum and\nthus remains a relatively unfamiliar story to me, as well as one that doesn\u2019t\nhave the same kind of emotional resonance as it will to those who have grown up\nwith it. Still, the new film adaptation is certainly well-acted and lavishly produced,\nwith a cast and crew fully committed to delivering, and in some respects,\nupdating the classic story for modern audiences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Little-Women-lying-down.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-19728\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The story begins with Jo Marsh (Saoirse Ronan) an aspiring\nwriter in New York, struggling to sell her work to a publisher. Meanwhile her\nsisters Meg (Emma Watson), Amy (Florence Pugh) and Beth (Eliza Scanlen) are all\ndealing with their own issues. This adaptation does not follow a linear track,\njumping back and forth in time between the characters as adults to their younger\ndays spent together. These bits involve the girls playing and getting into\nscraps, as well as interactions with their mother (Laura Dern) and a local\nsuitor named Laurie (Timothee Chalamet). The young women experience happiness\nand heartbreak as they all yearn to find their place in the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Little-Women-sisters-at-beach.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-19729\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Again, this review is coming from an odd perspective of\nsomeone not knowing the story. Timeline liberties are taken to spice things up,\nalthough early on they are a bit confusing to the uninitiated. There are scenes\nat the beginning involving acquaintances and characters; the film assumes we\u2019ll\nall know them and their relation to the plot at first sight. Later flashbacks\ndo reveal important details about them, but it\u2019s a bit jarring early on. Those\nwho haven\u2019t read the work will feel like they\u2019ve walked into the middle of a\nconversation between two strangers without any sense of history. And even from\nthis reviewer\u2019s perspective, one person\u2019s fate seems underdeveloped and predetermined\nfrom the beginning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Little-Women-saorise-chalamet.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-19731\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While some of the theatrics involving the sisters do come\nacross as a bit forced and posed, the cast are excellent and manage to sell the\nmaterial with aplomb. One can certainly see the fiery temper of Jo, Meg\u2019s\nstoicism and Amy\u2019s vanity, jealousy and desire for the more material things in\nlife. The movie also allows for a few updates as the leads find themselves\ndealing with and complaining vocally about the societal norms and restrictions\nplaced upon them.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Little-Women-pugh-chalamet.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-19730\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The movie also benefits from impressive production design,\ncostuming and photography. It\u2019s a very good-looking movie that captures both\nthe homey, rustic qualities of the Marsh home (with a consistently golden and\nappealing candlelit glow) alongside the grand and ornate (though colder-hued)\nhomes of the upper class and high society. And of course, the autumn-colored\nnatural backdrops are also pretty. And the rainy, train station finale exudes a\nsense of warmth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So, despite this reviewer having some trouble early on\nadjusting to the narrative jumps and not finding much in the way of surprises,\nthis is a very sweet and likable adaption of the <em>Little Women<\/em> story.\nThose who are fans of the novel who don\u2019t mind a little tinkering should enjoy\nrefamiliarizing themselves with the trials and joys of these characters. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019ll be honest and admit that I\u2019m likely not the target audience for Little Women. It was not part of my school curriculum and thus remains a relatively unfamiliar story to me, as well as one that doesn\u2019t have the same kind of emotional resonance as it will to those who have grown up with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":19732,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[197,3294,6251,6945,7518,7679,12132,12516,12517,12518,12519,15922,17641],"class_list":["post-19727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-197","tag-book","tag-drama","tag-emma-watson","tag-film-adaptation","tag-florence-pugh","tag-laura-dern","tag-little-women","tag-little-women-film-review","tag-little-women-movie-review","tag-little-women-review","tag-period","tag-saoirse-ronan"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19727\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}