Review: With a splendid new 'Little Women,' Greta Gerwig is thinking big

It is a truth universally acknowledged that every generation needs its own film version of "Little Women," and why not.

Louisa May Alcott's novel of sisters wanting to do it for themselves has been so cherished and so inspirational for so long that even publicity for a 1918 silent version refers to "the book that for 40 years has been read and loved the world over."

Now, more than a century later - after being translated into 55 languages and influencing everyone from Simone de Beauvoir to Elena Ferrante - it's only natural that, the presence of admirable versions from 1933, 1949 and 1994 notwithstanding, there's an appetite for a "Little Women" that speaks