Little Women (U)

★★★★ A lovely story and vivacious stars make this warm-hearted saga of home, family and growing up - written, directed and produced by women - a joyful standard bearer in the new wave of "women's pictures". ~ Empire.

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Winona Ryder (in an Oscar nominated role) and Academy Award winner Susan Sarandon (1995 Best Actress, Dead Man Walking) star in this "affectionate, superbly acted" (Los Angeles Times) family favourite from 1994.

With her husband off at war, Marmee (Sarandon) is left alone to raise their four daughters, her Little Women.

There is the spirited Jo (Ryder); conservative Meg (Trini Alvarado, Paulie); fragile Beth (Claire Danes, William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet); and romantic Amy (played at different ages by Kristen Dunst, Wag the Dog and Samantha Mathis, Broken Arrow).

As the years pass, the sisters share some of the most cherished and painful memories of self-discovery, as Marmee and Aunt March (Mary Wickes, The Man Who Came to Dinner) guide them through issues of independence, romance and virtue.

Gabriel Byrne (End of Days), Eric Stoltz (TV's "Chicago Hope") and Christian Bale (The Portrait of a Lady) co-star in this "handcrafted valentine" (Newsweek) of a film.