Little: Film Review

Synopsis

Little follows Jordan Sanders (Regina Hall), a mean, bossy, and bitchy tech mogul in Atlanta, and her assistant April Williams (Issa Rae). One day at the office, after yelling at a little girl, Jordan has a curse put upon her wishing that she were little again. The next morning, she wakes up as Little Jordan Sanders (Marsai Martin) and realizes that she must switch back before her company loses their biggest client. With the help of April and a little nudge from Child Services, Jordan must enroll in school and hand over executive control to April. Through this journey, she realizes that she needs friends and that she is not alone. 

Review

Overall, I felt that Little was uneven in most aspects.  No two things were on the same level of quality. The script was OKAY. The film has heart and it has humor but the laughs are too few and far between (not to say that they’re not there). The script offers more substance than recent comedies, but ultimately falls short. The film is very poorly edited (possibly the worst thing about it). There aren't many smooth transitions and the editing doesn’t make narrative sense, mainly because it creates some continuity errors. The pacing is all over the place. The "third act" moves very fast compared to the other two, but the other two also seem to slow compared to the third at the same time. There are some tonal issues, possibly contributed to by the three or four different storylines. There are a surplus of plot lines leading to some plot holes (what happened to her teacher?) that ultimately jumbled the film's goal of telling one cohesive story. The film has a well matched cast. They all seem comfortable together. The performances are good. Issa Rae is great (I need to watch Insecure). She gets most of the funny lines. I liked Regina Hall, though I wish there was more of her. Marsai Martin seems to be very committed to the role. As an aside, Martin also has an executive producer credit. Good Job, Diane!