Without a doubt this is a very enjoyable film. I have never read the novel so I can't comment on how well the actors played their parts but I felt they all did a good job.
My only complaint, and it's mainly a trivial one - the replacement of Kirsten Dunst with Samantha Mathis 2/3 of the way into the film. Although it was impossible for Dunst to play the older Amy (she was only 11 when it was films so she was clearly too young) it was still a fairly major distraction for me because Amy had become my favourite of the 4 girls and to suddenly jump to another actress at that stage in the movie was a bit annoying. Because of this the later part of the movie involving Amy I had a hard time identifying with her as I did the other 3, but since the last 1/3 of the film is dominated by Jo anyway it wasn't too much of a hassle.
4 1/2 stars out of 5.
My only complaint, and it's mainly a trivial one - the replacement of Kirsten Dunst with Samantha Mathis 2/3 of the way into the film. Although it was impossible for Dunst to play the older Amy (she was only 11 when it was films so she was clearly too young) it was still a fairly major distraction for me because Amy had become my favourite of the 4 girls and to suddenly jump to another actress at that stage in the movie was a bit annoying. Because of this the later part of the movie involving Amy I had a hard time identifying with her as I did the other 3, but since the last 1/3 of the film is dominated by Jo anyway it wasn't too much of a hassle.
4 1/2 stars out of 5.