latics

It's terrific to see this warm, witty movie-like-they-used-to-make. Not quite up to Sleepless in Seattle, but with Meg Ryan as cute and delightful as this, who cares. Playing comedy, she has all the appeal and charisma of the all-time movie greats - what a pity the old studio system no longer exists to craft regular star vehicles for her, instead of her appearing in the run-of-the-mill parts which make up most of her career.

Shelley Long and Bette Midler make a wonderful comedy team and the first half of the movie makes the most of this - snappy dialogue and quickfire direction make for a marvellously funny first hour. Unfortunately, the plot then takes over – a convoluted spy story - and the thicker the plot, the fewer the laughs. Pity somebody didn't sort it out - this could have been one of the best comedies in donkey's years.

This is the third movie version of Little Women that I've seen and it does nothing to break the Hollyood rule – re-makes are never as good! True, this is a decent, watchable and engaging movie. Gillian Armstrong has made a touching, well cast version of the story with Winona Ryder really snapping up the chance to shine as Jo. Nice under-playing by Susan Sarandon, and it's great to see Mary Wickes still going strong. But the fact is that George Cukor did it best of all back in 1933. Of course, he did have an unfair advantage – HIS leading lady was Katharine Hepburn . ..