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| Marsai Martin in Little. Image courtesy Universal Pictures. |
Appreciation for Little
requires a pretty long look beyond the premise. Because the premise
is silly and not meant to be taken too seriously, yet the movie leans
on it so heavily to deliver laughs the thing basically breaks midway
through the second act. Little
does have a couple of things going for it, notably a pretty good
cast, but once the premise stops being funny and starts becoming
tedious there isn't much left to say about it.
Little
stars Regina Hall a wicked wealthy software developer Jordan Sanders.
Jordan's success stems from a drive to become important and spurn
anything good in her life, including sweet love interest Preston
(Tone Bell). Jordan also makes her employees' lives miserable,
especially her mousy assistant April (Issa Rae). That is until the
day 13-year-old Stevie (Marley Taylor) casts a spell to turn Jordan
little again. The next morning Jordan wakes up as her 13-year-old
self (played by Marsai Martin), and is forced to relive her middle
school years, befriends the school's nerds (JD McCrary, Thalia Tran,
and Tucker Meek) in the process. Meanwhile, April has to run the
business and prepare for a big pitch to the wealthy and oblivious
Connor (Mikey Day). Shenanigans ensue.
Most
of Little's
humor comes from its premise. Watching Martin pretend she's actually
a 39-year-old woman is fun for a little while – credit to her for
going all in on the premise – but the joke eventually stops being
funny, and the rest of the film's sense of humor is bothersome. The
humor often came at the expense of the likable characters; the nerds
are made fun of for being nerds, April is the target of fat jokes
(which, what?), and Hall's Jordan makes a rather uncomfortable trans
joke. This also might be one of the more pro-child abuse movies to
come out in a long while, and perhaps the last to do so in a similar
stretch. Little
is quietly mean, the humor dedicated to knocking characters down and
laughing at them. Hall, Rae, and Martin do their best to sell the
jokes, with Martin and Rae having some pretty good patter, but they
aren't given a lot to work with.
The
film's best joke is a one-liner making fun of its own premise with an
implied comparison to films like Big
and 13
Going on 30.
Unfortunately it invites that comparison to indicate why those other
films make their gimmicks work while Little
fails. The main reason is the storytelling, in particular the length
of the main characters' respective journeys. Big
and 13
Going on 30
spend weeks to months with their characters, giving them time to
undergo personal growth before returning to their original lives.
Little
gives its main character just two days to find her epiphany and turn
her life around. It's not enough time for the journey to stick, or
for the lessons to feel earned; Jordan is effectively a tourist in
her own narrative, never in any real danger of being stuck in her
situation. This issue hits April as well, as she's given just two
days to discover her self confidence. Both need more time to learn
about themselves, and the film just doesn't give it to them.
Which
is kind of odd considering the amount of time the movie has to work
with. Instead of exploring the world it's built for itself, the
writers (director Tina Gordon and Tracy Oliver) toss in multiple
dance scenes that don't advance the plot. There's a lot of this fluff
in Little,
scenes that don't really carry the narrative or would lead to
additional plot points but are ultimately dropped. At the same time
there are a number of narrative gaps, things that happen that make
little sense because the context was edited out. It feels like Little
was
just assembled incorrectly; the pieces were there, but the filmmakers
didn't have a good understanding of the puzzle they were trying to
solve.
Review: Two out of Five Stars
Click here to see the trailer.
Rating: PG-13
Run time: 109 minutes
Genre: Comedy
tl;dr
What
Worked: Regina
Hall,
Issa Rae, Marsai Martin.
What
Fell Short: Directing,
Writing, Mean Spirit
What
To Watch Instead:
Big,
13 Going on 30
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