Director Gillian Armstrong combines a documentary-like feel with the elegance of a period piece in this adaptation of the beloved Louisa May Alcott novel about four daughters and their mother (played at different ages by Susan Sarandon, Winona Ryder, Claire Danes and Kirsten Dunst, among others). The result makes you feel like a fifth sibling in the March home. As the sisters grow up and their lives expand, the film also develops and deepens. At first an intense family drama, Little Women is also a knowing love story and, perhaps most interestingly, a chronicle of the growth of an artist as Jo (Ryder) develops her talents as a writer.
