We can’t recall the last time a principal cast list excited us this much. This year’s highly anticipated adaptation of “Little Women,” to be released in December, will feature some of this generation’s most popular young actors alongside long-time legends of cinema. Perhaps this is fitting. “Little Women,” written in 1868 by American novelist Louisa May Alcott, holds a beloved place in the Western literary canon. Generations of readers around the world have followed the meticulously-detailed lives of the four March sisters and their post-Civil War world in Massachusetts. A definite hallmark of American culture, “Little Women” has left no shortage of stage and screen adaptations in its wake. This latest feature will join the “Little Women” legacy among seven other film adaptations and nine (!) TV series.
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So what will make this edition worth the watch? Greta Gerwig (“Lady Bird,” “Frances Ha“) may sell the ticket for many a cineaste. The director’s oeuvre is a landscape where young women are free to investigate, cross-examine, tear down and reshape every layer of their public and private selves. As bricoleurs of their own voices, relationships, and aspirations, Gerwig’s characters have allowed stories about women’s lives to unfold with emotional and stylistic richness. A novel that pricked at the conventions of domesticity over 150 years ago would be hard-pressed to find a more fitting (and famous) director of current feminist cinema.
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It’s been reported that Gerwig’s “Little Women” will center around the March sisters in their young-adulthood as they forge unique senses of identity and independence. The primary cast stars Emma Watson (“Harry Potter,” “The Perks of Being a Wallflower“), Saoirse Ronan (“Brooklyn,” “Lady Bird“), Eliza Scanlen (“Sharp Objects”), and Florence Pugh (“Midsommar”) as its iconic quartet of sisters. Meryl Streep and Laura Dern will share the screen again as Aunt March and Marmee March, respectively, and Timothée Chalamet (“Call Me by Your Name,” “Lady Bird“) will feature as Theodore “Laurie” Laurence.
Here’s the official synopsis:
Writer-director Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird) has crafted a Little Women that draws on both the classic novel and the writings of Louisa May Alcott, and unfolds as the author’s alter ego, Jo March, reflects back and forth on her fictional life. In Gerwig’s take, the beloved story of the March sisters – four young women each determined to live life on her own terms — is both timeless and timely. Portraying Jo, Meg, Amy, and Beth March, the film stars Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, Eliza Scanlen, with Timothée Chalamet as their neighbor Laurie, Laura Dern as Marmee, and Meryl Streep as Aunt March.
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“Little Women” looks like it will skip the fall film festival circuit, for now (maybe AFI?), and will premiere in theaters on December 25, 2019. Watch the first trailer below.