Jordan is a take-no-prisoners tech mogul who torments her long-suffering assistant, April, and the rest of her employees on a daily basis. She soon faces an unexpected threat to her personal life and career when she magically transforms into a 13-year-old version of herself right before a do-or-die presentation. Jordan will now need to rely on April more than ever -- if April is willing to stop treating Jordan like a 13-year-old child who has an attitude problem.
I remember perusing through social media and someone had uploaded a screenshot that I really struck me: Sometimes people use "respect" to mean "treating someone like a person" and sometimes they use "respect" to mean "treating someone like an authority". Sometimes people who are used to being treated like an authority say "if you won't respect me, I won't respect you" and they mean "if you won't treat me like an authority, I won't treat you like a person". They think they are being fair, but they aren't.
That post was one of the things that really stuck in my mind when I was watching this film. There is a certain level of enjoyment in watching an unlikeable character getting their comeuppance, but for it to really be effective that unlikeable character either needs to be an antagonist or a protagonist that gradually learns the error of their ways. In the case of Little, however, the pacing leaves a lot to be desired and you end up wondering why you are meant to care about this person at all.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. Little is another genderbending film to add to the list, along with The Hustle, What Men Want, and 2016's Ghostbusters. Little is the opposing premise of the 1988 classic, Big; instead of a young boy waking up as his adult self, we have a woman waking as her younger self.
The changes to the premise itself have a drastic effect on what the film can really entail. A young child suddenly waking up an adult is suddenly liberated and has a sense of freedom to try and experience new things that they may not be prepared for. Doing it the other way around really restricts the possibilities. The comedy comes from taking away the liberties and freedoms that the character previously had, forcing her to re-experience something she has already been through (which is also shown to the audience at the start of the film).
I really didn't expect too much from this film because I find Regina Hall to be hit-and-miss when it comes to comedy (I don't subscribe to the "louder is funnier" mentality). So I was intrigued when I realised how minor a role she has in the film. Little focuses more on April--played by Issa Rae (from HBO's Insecure)--in her search for confidence while dealing with a younger version of Hall's character (played by Marsai Martin).
While I don't necessarily agree with some of the mature adult things that young Marsai Martin was doing onscreen, she did a really good job on them. She had a great level of sass and a delusion sense of superiority that stood out compared to the more timid version we saw early in the film. Issa Rae is the standout performance though, who provides the only truly sympathetic performance.
There are so many aspects of this film that are formulaic and make this just another cookie cutter film, and it feels so sloppily written (which is a surprise considering the pedigree of the actresses and cast involved). There are a number of characters that are introduced for the sake of a single setup (whether it be a joke or an obstacle to overcome), but more often than not the resolution and payoff happen in the next scene. It is bluntly put forward, poorly executed, and then swept under the rug, never to be mentioned again. It begs the question of why these aspects were ever introduced in the first place. Simply to add an extra laugh.
The cinematography was bland with very flat camera shots and lighting. There are reasonable production values, but the scale of the film is so small that it feels like this was made for DVD.
There was a great opportunity missed here, to really look deep at the different types of bullying and emotional harassment that have gone on for generations in the workplace, schoolyards, and in homes. But Little doesn't even go skin deep on the issue. Showing minimal character growth or development outside of the final five minutes of the film.
All in all, I'm not saying that this is a bad film. It is very watchable and does get a few laughs (despite them being very predictable). I love that the cast is more diverse, I just wish they had a better script to work with. Little is a very mediocre film that relies too heavily on physical comedy. With very little that stands out in the film, it's easy to get swept away by the negatives, but it ends up being quite inoffensive. Perfectly fine if you are looking to kill some time, and don't want to think hard about the film, because you will forget it within hours of viewing it (technically that increases its rewatchability, right?).
Originally posted to: http://djin.nz/Kr8340
Originally posted to: http://djin.nz/Kr8340