Greta Gerwig's 'Little Women' big on heart, smarts and sincerity

Christmas Day becomes a pivotal time for the March sisters in Louisa May Alcott's classic novel #8220;Little Women,#8221; so it seems thematically inspired to release Greta Gerwig's sumptuously detailed, smart and heartfelt film adaptation on Christmas Day.

#8220;I am upset over my dissatisfaction at being a girl!#8221; laments Jo March (a fiery, feisty Saoirse Ronan), an independent young woman stuck in a repressive, late 19th-century Massachusetts town.

Jo desperately wants to be a writer, but a blunt editor (actor/writer Tracy Letts, a veteran of Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company) pulls no punches: #8220;If the main character is a girl, make sure she's married by the end, or dead. Either one.#8221;

Jo's struggle to become a professional writer gives Gerwig a framework for her film to pose a blunt feminist viewpoint while remaining faithful to Alcott's novel.

The film adroitly time-shifts its narrative, starting when the March sisters are older, then regressing back seven years.

Jo's eldest sister Meg (Emma Watson) has married an awkward schoolteacher named John (James Norton).

The self-centered youngest sister Amy (Florence Pugh in a career high performance) studies painting in Paris with her wealthy, comically snooty aunt (Meryl Streep).

We know little about sister Beth (Eliza Scanlen), for reasons that fans of the novel (or previous film versions) will already know.

March mother Marmee (Laura Dern) struggles to keep a brave front, but her husband (former Naperville resident Bob Odenkirk), a chaplain away in the Civil War, has little money, mandating his daughters must marry #8220;well.#8221;

Gerwig, following up her sharply observed #8220;Lady Bird,#8221; gives #8220;Little Women#8221; fresh, robust resonance, aided by Jess Gonchor's eye-popping production designs, Yorick Le Saux's clean camera work and Alexandre Desplat's appropriately lush score.

She coaches a charismatic cast (with Timothee Chalamet as Amy's childhood crush Laurie and Chris Cooper as his grandfather) in a moving experience heavy on the sincerity but light on the humor.

#8226; #8226; #8226;

Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, Eliza Scanlen, Laura Dern, Timothée Chalamet, Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper, Tracy Letts, Bob Odenkirk

Directed by: Greta Gerwig

Other: A Columbia Pictures release. Rated PG. 135 minutes