I suppose if I’m going to be so long in reading Little Women , I might as well be long in seeing the film too! My lovely husband, keenly aware of my interest, set the DVR to tape Little Women on the Oprah Winfrey Network so I could watch it (awfully nice, thanks Rich!). I watched it last night with my daughter and we both enjoyed it a lot although the commercial interruptions on OWN are absolutely horrible and so frequent!

I don’t consider my 22 year old daughter to be the sentimental type at all but she really seemed to enjoy the movie. I did too even though it took great liberty with the story (Jo writing Little Women??). It did capture the spirit of the book and the scenery was beautiful. Orchard House looked splendid!

I very much liked Winona Ryder as Jo, her performance was very spirited. I always thought of Jo as much taller so I was surprised that detail was overlooked. There was great chemistry between Jo and Laurie (and none between Amy and Laurie – more on that in a moment); Christian Bale is sweet to the eyes. Professor Bhaer was a bit too handsome but his face was very kindly as I would expect.

I didn’t care for Susan Sarandon as Marmee and I’m not sure why. It seemed like she came off as preachy. Marmee can be preachy but once I got into the into the character, I forgot about that. Sarandon never made me forget it.

Claire Danes did Beth to perfection but it was almost spooky during the final death scene with the look in her eye.

I missed the first part of the movie so I never really got to see the younger Amy, but the mature Amy really seemed to be lacking in spirit, and that’s why there was no chemistry between her and Laurie. I know Amy becomes a proper lady but I never got the impression she was lacking in spirit. I was very disappointed in this film’s depiction of my favorite character.

Meg was Meg, nothing more to say on that. Oh, and I loved Aunt March.

I bawled like a baby through the movie and not just during Beth’s death scene. The anniversary of my mother’s passing is coming up in April and she’s been on my mind a lot lately. This story really makes me feel close to her so I missed her a lot last night while watching it. My daughter tactfully left me alone while I cried and I’m grateful to her.

Now the funny thing is that during the ALA workshop, several of the librarians and scholars said that they preferred June Allyson as Jo. I never could imagine Allyson in the part but now I’ll have to search out that movie and see it too. And of course, I must catch Hepburn’s performance!