This Winona Ryder version of Alcott’s venerated page-turner is the most satisfying to date, as adapted by Robin Swicord, directed by Gillian Armstrong and embodied by an ideal cast: Gabriel Byrne, Trini Alvarado, Christian Bale, Claire Danes, Susan Sarandon, Eric Stoltz, plus Kirsten Dunst and Samantha Mathis sharing a character between them. The show looks and sounds fantastic in remastered 4K Ultra HD. It’s not all smiley faces as on the box top; in this case great entertainment just happens to be family friendly. It’s an excellent Christmas story, as well.

Little Women 1994
4K Ultra HD + Digital
Sony Pictures
1994 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 118 min. / Street Date November 19, 2024, 2024 / Available from Movie Zyng / 34.49 / Available from Amazon / 34.49
Starring: Winona Ryder, Gabriel Byrne, Trini Alvarado, Christian Bale, Kirsten Dunst, Claire Danes, Susan Sarandon, Eric Stoltz, Samantha Mathis, John Neville, Mary Wickes, Florence Paterson.
Cinematography: Geoffrey Simpson
Production Designer: Jan Roelfs
Art Director: Richard Hudolin
Costume Design: Colleen Atwood
Film Editor: Nicholas Beauman
Music: Thomas Newman
Screenplay by Robin Swicord from the novel by Louisa May Alcott
Produced by Denise Di Novi
Directed by Gillian Armstrong

Louisa May Alcott’s good-read of a book has been adapted to film innumerable times, but the main versions were not created equal. We were surprised to find that RKO’s ’33 Katherine Hepburn – George Cukor ‘classic’ was only so-so; Hepburn seems intent on turning it into a comic vehicle for herself. The ’49 MGM version with June Allyson, Peter Lawford. Elizabeth Taylor, Janet Leigh and Mary Astor never appealed much. Greta Gerwig’s 2019 version is currently the consensus champion; I confess not following its split-time framing structure. You expect me to remember women’s hair styles, to keep the chronology straight?

Gillian Armstrong’s 1994 version of Little Women starring Winona Ryder still plays the best for us. The Australian director and her cameraman Geoffrey Simpson demonstrate a fresh eye for what’s relevant in Civil War- era Massachusetts and New York. Screenwriter Robin Swicord (Memoirs of a Geisha) manages a faithful adaptation of the book. She and Armstrong walk the tightrope filmmakers face when approaching ‘wholesome’ classic material. The movie has its share of melodramatic incident. Is it too saccharine?  Does it harshen the characterizations to please a modern audience?

The show became a December release for 1994, which was good thinking, as the warmth and affection in the March family place this high in the list of Christmas movies. Yes, the sisters indulge in something like a Group Hug every few minutes, but our cynical natures are not at all offended — good grief, wouldn’t it be a luxury to be among this many caring, connected people?  The story hasn’t been burdened with new political content. Jo March calmly discusses women’s rights at one point, and that’s pretty much it.

This was reportedly the last movie released under the straight ‘Columbia Pictures’ banner. Sony must have asked to be given a PG rating — the movie is clearly “G” but that designation had come to denote something for children. I’m glad it became an outing for my family … we found it one of the best movies of its year.

Locations in British Columbia and Massachusetts provide Little Women ’94 with handsome New England interiors and a parade of attractive snowy exteriors. But the show delivers a convincing 1863 period feel.

The saga of the March family is told through the eyes of daughter Jo (star Winona Ryder), who also provides a voiceover narration. Father March (Matthew Walker) is away fighting for the Union. The family goes through hard times, doing its best to avoid the charity of their Aunt March (Mary Wickes), who employs Jo as a companion in the afternoons. Jo wants to be a writer, and submits blood & thunder thriller stories to all the magazines, with little success. Her kindly sister Meg (Trini Alvarado) is considered the beauty of the family; Beth (Claire Danes) is kind, quiet and plays the piano. Little Amy (Kirsten Dunst, later Samantha Mathis) is romantic but impulsive: at one point she burns one of Jo’s manuscripts without a clear reason. The sisters all like the boy next door Laurie (Christian Bale), who joins them for plays and recreation, and develops a crush on Jo. Schoolteacher John Brooke (Eric Stoltz) only has eyes for Meg.

Mrs. March, called ‘Marmee’ (Susan Sarandon) is a fountain of love and wisdom. Even when strapped, she offers help to those less fortunate. She offers advise when Meg wants to attend a rich girl’s party. Marmee is absent for months attending to her wounded husband in a Washington hospital. Beth contracts scarlet fever from the baby of some destitute German immigrants, and becomes deathly ill. Jo is frustrated when Aunt March chooses to take Amy to France, for an art education. Jo instead takes a job tutoring children in New York City, and sells some of her stories. She meets a penniless but handsome classics professor from Germany, Frederich Bhaer (Gabriel Byrne). He gently suggests that she steer her writing away from penny dreadful material, to a subject she knows personally.

Women film directors are no longer the exception they were in 1994. Gillian Armstrong uses a conventional style but unerringly chooses projects that give her leading actresses a chance to express unconventional attitudes. She was one of the first of the Australian ‘new wave’ directors that established themselves internationally. Her breakthrough movie  My Brilliant Career made a star of Judy Davis. It’s a biopic of a famous author, that has interesting parallels with the situation of Jo March / Louisa May Alcott. We loved Armstrong’s 1982  Starstruck, an unorthodox teen musical starring Jo Kennedy, and her second Judy Davis drama, High Tide. Armstrong’s American pictures Mrs. Soffel (Diane Keaton) and Fires Within (Greta Scacchi, Jimmy Smits) didn’t perform as well.

Despite a stumble here and there, Winona Ryder’s six-year starring career had racked up at least four solid hits:  Beetlejuice,  Heathers (a critical hit),  Edward Scissorhands,  Bram Stoker’s Dracula,  The Age of Innocence. The 1990  Mermaids became an unfortunate bust when co-star Cher changed directors. Ms. Ryder’s role was severely cut, and the tone was wrecked with constant pop songs.  ^*

Little Women gives Ryder one of her best roles — conventional perhaps, but consistently excellent. The emotional issues are not overstated. The movie undercuts a moment of potential bathos: the one time Jo breaks down in tears, we think the cause is concern for her wounded father, hundreds of miles away. No, she’s upset at her own vanity — after so nobly selling her hair to help Marmee, she can’t help but feel sorry for herself. Ryder and Armstrong do excellent work making Jo’s main story points feel fresh — selling her stories, comforting the ill Beth, becoming inspired by the gentle approach of the cultured German academic.

Jo is the opposite of Judy Davis’s Sybylla in My Brilliant Career, a caustic rebel who torments a suitor and frustrates her guardians by truly fighting the push to marry well. There’s a parallel with Jo, when Sybylla, urged to go work to support herself, hires out as a tutor. She ends up in a filthy rat-hole of a farm with uncouth parents and a pack of vicious feral kids. It’s a hilarious contrast with Jo’s idyllic job in New York of 1867 — we see her darling child students only once.

The March sisters are each pleasant company. The four actresses are given solid scenes, telling character details, and good direction. Trini Alvarado is uncomplicated and graceful; she has the character to overcome the humiliations dished out by the daughters of more prosperous neighbors. We think Samantha Mathis makes a decent follow-up actress to replace Kirsten Dunst, four years older. Dunst gets most of the high drama, and Mathis has only to use her wits to steer a slacker romantic target back into line.

We’re taken by Claire Danes’ Beth, who is given the least attention in the script. Her main function is to suffer a major tragedy that takes several years to fully play out. She plays it to perfection, without the expected tear-jerk fireworks.

The picture moves at a brisk pace to cover the entire story in two hours, necessitating some telescoped scenes and some important characters that aren’t given a lot of material. Eric Stoltz ( Rob Roy) has just enough onscreen time to register as good enough to be a romantic partner for Meg. The sentimental favorites Mary Wicks ( White Christmas; in her last movie) and John Neville ( The Adventures of Baron Munchausen) are barely more than quick sketches, but we don’t feel cheated. Their familiar faces remind us of out uncles and aunts.

Getting the biggest boost are the leading men. The Irishman Gabriel Byrne ( Miller’s Crossing) does an okay German expatriate and shapes up as the perfect mate for little ol’ Jo. The relative newcomer Christian Bale carries forth from his noted child-star role in the Spielberg  Empire of the Sun. In the wartime section of the story, his Laurie a dream boy-next-door.

Good storytelling sneaks up on us. Director Armstrong shapes the material with a firm hand. We particularly admire the film’s pace — the many scenes neither linger on details nor feel rushed or abbreviated. Solid talent is applied to traditional material, avoiding pitfalls of sentimentality. It’s one of Winona Ryder’s most polished performances — showing different strengths than in her leading roles for Tim Burton. It’s a superior picture: handsome, intelligent, and a pleasure to watch.

Sony Pictures’ 4K Ultra HD + Digital of Little Women 1994 is a real beauty on 4K home video. We don’t really need to add that this 4K blows away the old Sony DVD. We’re told that the show was filmed in Canada, but relocated to Massachusetts to take advantage of the distinctive Fall and Winter scenery; some of the images look like Currier & Ives engravings re-born in Technicolor. Everything looks so cozy that we forget about the state of medicine in the 1860s, what life expectancy was, what the infant mortality was. Thomas Newman’s music score is warm and rich.

Note that this particular release is a 4K disc with a digital code … no extra Blu-ray is included.

The extras on the new disc all appear to be repeats. Gillian Armstrong’s commentary is recommended, and viewers charmed by the show might want to check out the deleted scenes, with Armstrong explaining how they ended up that way. This really is a good choice for a Christmas family screening … after a couple of minutes, any reasonable kid would be hooked.

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Little Women 1994
4K Ultra HD + Digital rates:
Movie: Excellent
Video: Excellent
Sound: Excellent
Supplements:
Audio commentary by Gillian Armstrong
Making-Of featurette
Costume and Design featurette
Deleted Scenes with optional director’s commentary
Costume and Set Design Gallery with Colleen Atwood Commentary.
Deaf and Hearing-impaired Friendly? YES; Subtitles: English (feature only)
Packaging: One Blu-ray in Keep case
Reviewed: November 29, 2024
(7239wome)

^*  I worked with a rough cut of Mermaids, which included several important scenes that didn’t make it to the final release. It should have been a major hit for Winona Ryder. The raw screenplay is an affecting, emotional read.

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