Clever, spirited, vigorous and intelligent: Little Women reviewed

There have already been several film adaptations of Louisa May Alcott’s beloved 1868 novel Little Women, and why not? After all, who ever gets tired of Jo burning off Meg’s hair? But the latest, from Greta Gerwig, is so clever and spirited and vigorous and engaging it knocks all the others into a cocked hat. This version is, I had read, Little Women for ‘a new generation’ but just so we’re clear, the ‘old generation’ like it perfectly fine. They love it, in fact. There’s life in us yet. Sometimes.

This has a stellar cast and stars practically everyone: Saoirse Ronan (Jo), Emma Watson (Meg), Florence Pugh (Amy), Eliza Scanlen (Beth; oh God, Beth), Laura Dern (Maaaarmeeeeeeee) and Meryl Streep as a wonderfully scene-stealing Aunt March. It doesn’t begin like the book, or the other adaptations, with Jo grumbling: ‘Christmas won’t be Christmas without presents.’ Instead it starts midway through, with Jo in New York trying to sell her stories to a gruff, mutton-chopped publisher (Tracy Letts, ffs), who informs her, tellingly: ‘If the main character is a girl make her married by the end.