THEY'RE BACK!

Try as I might, I can't recall a single person saying, "What we need is another Little Women". Not that I don't love the story. I do. And, I must admit, the Winona Ryder version was very weak. But still, we have Katharine Hepburn and June Allyson and a Broadway musical and at least three television specials. I even have  a 1958 TV musical version with Jeannie Carson, Florence Henderson, Bill Hayes, and Joel Grey which nobody remembers. So why this urgent need for another Little Women? I guess this is a feminist version, but so weren't all the others. (You don't get more feminist than Kate Hepburn.) Was it different? Sort of. In this version Laurie was a jerk. Aunt March was Meryl Streep. And Jo, (the unpronounceable Saoirse Ronan)  wasn't the usual tomboy. Did I enjoy it? Sort of. At least enough to have spare brain time to ask questions I never asked before. Like if Aunt March was so rich, why didn't she give her relatives more in creature comforts. How did their father support them at all? Why did Aunt March leave her house to Jo, whom she considered not very serious, and would she really have said "cat house"? Do I recommend it? Sure, why not? That is if you can keep track of Greta Gerwig's jumping back and forth in time. And take all kinds of mushy sentiment. You know what we need? Another Pride and Prejudice.