'Little Women'

It’s a blessed relief to see “Little Women” out of its corsets, freed from the strictures of 19th-century costumes and settings, and moving around in the modern world just in time for the book’s sesquicentennial — a big-sounding word that Louisa May Alcott’s impulsive heroine Jo would enjoy using in a sentence.

Director Clare Niederpruem, who co-wrote with Kristi Shimek, makes the brave choice to take Alcott’s 150-year-old classic and update it to the 21st century. The details are changed, such as when Marmee (Lea Thompson) is heard on the phone dealing with creditors while her husband, Mr. March (Bart Johnson), is serving as an Army medic in Afghanistan. But the relationships between the four March sisters remain the emotional core.

Read the full review at sltrib.com.