Little Women . Tucson Weekly . 01-12-95

Little Women

DIRECTED BY: Gillian Armstrong

REVIEWED: 01-12-95

Louisa May Alcott's story of sisterhood, liberation and love gets a competent, reverent Hollywood treatment from Australian director Gillian Armstrong, but the casting is all wrong. Since when is Winona Ryder capable of carrying a movie? Starring as the multidimensional Jo March, Ryder robs the movie of its professionalism and renders trivial skilled performances by the other Little Women in the cast: Trini Alvarado(playing the sweet, marriage-bound sister), Claire Danes(who makes sickliness look like a virtue), Kirsten Dunst(as the fiery young'un) and Susan Sarandon(as the ever-consoling mom). Ryder has been OK in other films, but in pictures like this you can tell she's trying to act. You shouldn't be able to tell.

--Zachary Woodruff

Other Films by Gillian Armstrong
Oscar and Lucinda

Film Vault Suggested Links
The English Patient
Gone With the Wind
Fifty Four

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