Ah- the good old pre-coronavirus days, when you could sit in a movie theatre with other people.
I suspect that this is a film of Little Women for viewers who have never read Little Women. It’s boisterous and far more feminist than the book or other film versions, and it breaks the mould by mixing in aspects of Louisa May Alcott’s own story as a writer, as well as using flashbacks and disrupting the narrative flow.
I enjoyed the film, but I bristled at some of the casting. At first I thought that Saoirse Ronan was all wrong as Jo, but by the end of the film she had made the role her own. Meg was as wishy-washy as she seems in the book. Director Greta Gerwig emphasizes the emotional connection between Jo and Amy, who are seen more as soulmates and very similar to each other than I found in the book . Amy didn’t seem right to me either, too rounded and not self-centred enough. The Amy in my head is haughty and thin. Beth didn’t look sick enough. And Laurie was just WET. Professor Bauer was too good-looking, and Laurie’s grandfather wasn’t gruff enough.
However, after all these grizzles, I did enjoy the film, which I think will carve out its own place amongst the many versions of Little Women. How many Little Womens are enough, I wonder?
My rating: 4 out of 5
Viewed at: Palace Westgarth with about 10 other people in the theatre with me. So I would have been safe after all.
The Resident Judge of Port Phillip 
I saw the movie recently and read the book for the first time last year. That’s what struck me too, that Jo’s story and LMA’s had been conflated. The miscasting, in my head, was Bhaer(I completely forget the spelling) who I thought was too young.