This robust and empowering film version of the classic Louisa May Alcott novel coalesced by way of Ryder’s reteaming with producer Denise Di Novi. Four sisters, and their mother Susan Sarandon and great-aunt Mary Wickes, experience joys and sorrows during and after the Civil War; Ryder, as aspiring writer Jo March, was again an Oscar nominee. The film carries Ryder’s dedication to the memory of Polly Klaas, a young woman who—like so many—took Alcott’s novel to heart as her favorite book.