Little Women take on a feminist twist
LITTLE WOMEN
★★★★✩
(U, 135 minutes)
Director: Greta Gerwig
Stars: Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, Eliza Scanlen, Laura Dern, Timothée Chalamet, Meryl Streep
PLAYING WITH FIRE
★★✩✩✩
(PG, 96 minutes)
Director: Andy Fickman
Stars: John Cena, Keegan-michael Key, Tyler Mane, John Leguizamo, Judy Greer
SPIES IN DISGUISE
★★★✩✩
(PG, 102 minutes)
Directors: Troy Quane,nick Bruno Stars: Will Smith, Tom Holland, Rashida Jones
AQUICK festive brain-teaser – which work of fiction has been brought to the big screen the most? Richard Dawkins might say the Nativity but the less controversial answer is Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol which has been adapted 14 times.
On Boxing Day, actress turned writer-director Greta Gerwig pushed Little Women up the rankings with the seventh adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s 1868American Civilwar saga.with such a familiar story – the first version was released in the silent era and the last in 1994 – Gerwig needed a fresh angle.
Instead of casting singing puppets as the March sisters (this could still work), she decided to monkey about with the timeline, narrow the gap between Jo and Amy and add a sprinkle of 21st century feminism.
A breezy opening scene lets us know that this isn’t the classic yarn that fans of stodgy 19th century literature know and love.aspiring writer Jo March (Soarise Ronan) is in a New York publishing house trying to sell a short story to Tracy Letts’s editor. “Always make sure she’s married at the end – or dead,” he says.
Fans of the book may see this as a sly reference to Alcott’s jarringly conventional ending. Gerwig doesn’t quite go the full Deadpool but this playfulness applies a modern sheen to the old classic.
As we follow the plucky newly published writer, Gerwig winds back the clock to show Jo growing up with her three sisters.then, daringly, she keeps cutting between the two timelines.
As in the book, it’s set in mid-19th century Massachusetts and focuses on the four March sisters – independent Jo, glamorous Amy (Florence Pugh), sickly Beth (Eliza Scanlen) and dull Meg
(Emma Watson).
With their father out fighting in the Civil War, the girls are largely left to their own devices by their free-spirited mum (Laura Dern) much to the horror of their disapproving aunt
(Meryl Streep).the Marches aren’t hard-up but she knows each girl needs to make a good marriage.
A likely candidate lives in the mansion next door.timothée Chalamet’s Laurie is rich, dreamily handsome and secretly in love with Jo.as the tomboy is more interested in her literary career, his affection begins to drift towards Amy.
In previous versions, scheming Amy was Jo’s villainous rival but Gerwig focuses on what they have in common.
Their biggest difference is their temperament.amy – the only practical one in a family of dreamers – admirably realises she must find a wealthy husband to support her sisters.
The costumes are sumptuous and the overlapping dialogue feels refreshingly authentic.the plot, however, can be a bit tricky.as the characters are played by the same actresses throughout their life, we need to keep an eye on Ronan’s hair to know which timeline we’re following.
Still, Gerwig’s Little Women probably ranks as the best of the seven.
Playing With Fire is, technically at least, based on an original story but its premise – muscle man turns unlikely kids entertainer – puts it in the same bracket as Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Kindergarten Cop and Dwayne
Johnson’s Tooth Fairy.
John Cena, who like Johnson made his name as a wrestler, plays Jake Carson – a macho firefighter who meets his match when he has to babysit three children he rescued from a burning cabin.
Mild hi-jinx ensue involving soap suds, hoses and explosive diarrhoea.
The slapstick may get a few laughs from younger children but parents not interested in Cena’s naked torso will be eyeing the cinema’s fire alarm.
Spies In Disguise is an animated buddy comedy.tom Holland voices a geeky scientist calledwalter Becket who teams up withwill Smith’s angry pigeon to hunt down a villain.
Smith begins the film in the shape of Lance Sterling, a supercool, tux-wearing superspy who turned into a bird after he accidentally swigs one ofwalter’s shape-shifting potions.
Kids’ films need some toilet humour and here the writers come up with another first.
Lance’s darkest moment comes when he goes to the bathroom and discovers his number ones and twos come from the same orifice, which is called a cloaca.this one informs as it entertains.