Tribeca Film Festival 2018: Little Women

Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women is a classic piece of literature for a reason: it is a timeless and universal portrait of women. Written by a woman about women in a time when women were relegated to the sidelines, it has been adapted for stage and screen to varying degrees of success. This Masterpiece on PBS adaptation is, based on the first part aired at the Tribeca Film Festival, a resounding success.

Beginning during the Civil War, Little Women focuses on the March family. While Mr. March (Dylan Baker) is in the Union Army, Marmee (Emily Watson) holds their family of four daughters—Meg (Willa Fitzgerald), Jo (Maya Hawke), Beth (Annes Elwy), and Amy (Kathryn Newton)—together. Each March sister has her own journey, whether it’s becoming a wife or becoming a writer, and the appeal of Little Women is how each girl meets every obstacle in her path while learning and growing from it. Ultimately, they always have one another.

Heidi Thomas wrote this adaptation of Little Women. She is a master of adaptations as proven by one of her other well-known adaptations of Call the Midwife. So, it’s no surprise that she did Little Women beautifully. One of the reasons that this adaptation, so far, seems to excel more than previous ones (although, don’t get me wrong, I LOVE all of the adaptations) is that we get to see more of each sister aside from Jo. As Thomas mentioned at the panel after the premiere screening, she had more time to work with to tell Alcott’s novel (a three hour miniseries rather than, say, an hour and a half film) which really allowed her to showcase each sister before the story hones in on Jo.

Director Vanessa Caswill also does a wonderful job. As producer Colin Callender shared at the panel, Caswill wanted “the camera to be another sister in the room.” That is evident in the close-up shots and the intimacy they invoke. She creates a beautiful world.

Helping her with that world creation are, of course, the actors. All of the characters are well-cast with good actors. It wouldn’t be a PBS Masterpiece production with some heavyweights; in this case, Michael Gambon (as Mr. Laurence) and Angela Lansbury (delightful as Aunt March) handle that. Emily Watson is a brilliant Marmee. In fact, Heidi Thomas explained that as she wrote Marmee, she envisioned Emily Watson in the role. She brings Marmee’s no-nonsense sensibility to the table along with her very universal vulnerabilities and struggles that lie beneath her ever-calm surface. Each of the actresses cast as a March sister brings a freshness to these timeless characters, especially Maya Hawke as Jo. Hawke makes her screen debut with this role, and it is quite the debut. I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot more of her in the future. And, we musn’t forget Julian Morris as John Brooke and Jonah Hauer-King as Laurie. Both do a fine job of being men these women (and audiences) love.

In short, Little Women aficionados will applaud this new production, and those new to the story will fall in love with it, too.

 

Little Women will air on Masterpiece on PBS beginning May 13, 2018.

★ ★ ★ ★ out of 4

Photo Credit: MASTERPIECE on PBS, BBC and Playground