Four sisters come of age in America in the aftermath of the Civil War.
Cambridge Film Festival 2023: Film #14
I appreciated this adaptation's nonlinearity a lot better on this rewatch and also took more pleasure from the film's metatextual jibes on critics (and women author-directors). Yet the film's general smugness and obvious reverence for wealth and Victorian-era charity grated a lot more this time. The dance-outside-the-dance (with the anachronistic Dvořák string quartet) is a good example of the film trying to have it multiple ways, additionally coming booby-trapped with a tedious "oh, it's just a bit of feelgood fun!" defence. Lastly, a few remembered scenes I had grown beyond their worth in my mind in the preceding years, particularly Jo's interactions with publisher Dashwood; a pale imitation of Mattie Ross (literally) horse-trading with Col. Stonehilll. Still, this Little Women is a success, even if it's a qualified one.
