For the life of me, I can't understand how the critics love this movie so much.
No, let me rephrase that - I know why they like it, or pretend to: because it oozes political correctness.
But in my humble opinion, this is NO five-star fare. It's flat. It's modernistic. It's not true to the book - it's all fuzzy and soft and watered-down, viewing like a Hallmark movie, with only slightly better acting. But above all, the casting is really the worst.
Susan Sarandon as a supposedly "new-and-improved" feministic Marmee was basically just playing herself, lacking all the warmth and wisdom of the Marmee in the book. Gabriel Byrne as Professor Bhaer - wait, did I say he played Prof. Bhaer? Grizzled, un-handsome, quirky Prof. Bhaer of the book? Nope. Not even close.
The worst was Winona Ryder. They should have cast someone, ANYONE besides her as Jo . In fact, she and Claire Danes should have swapped roles. Claire Danes with her boyish rasp and plain looks, would have been much better suited to playing our favorite tomboy than petite, beautiful Ryder. Does no one else see this?? This has bothered me for ages - really, it's one of the worst casting jobs in movie history, and what makes it worse is everyone seeming to think Ryder is "perfect" as Jo. I just don't get it. Everyone who says that has either never read the book, or they're blindly devoted fans of Ryder.
I would love to see this story remade one more time, and correctly for once. I'd like to see a version where Jo's character is not overacted, Prof. Bhaer is actually age-appropriate (to the book), and Amy is not a despicable twit (which, thankfully, isn't how she's portrayed in this movie, but how everyone seems to view her nonetheless - totally off the mark!).