Director
Tina Gordon
(PEEPLES)

Stars
Marsai Martin, Regina Hall and Issa Rae

There is BIG child talent being showcased in the new mainstream American comedy, LITTLE. 

When Jordan Sanders was a young girl at school, she was bullied and humiliated in front of her entire class as she enthusiastically and proudly presented her science project. Following some “sound” advice from her parents, Jordan (Regina Hall) turns her childhood ambitions into reality when she becomes her own boss of a tech company. Having felt as though life has taught her a harsh lesson from her experience at school, Jordan is intentionally despicable towards every person who dares to encounter her. After a magic trick places Jordan inside the body of a little girl (now played by Marsai Martin), she finds herself having to be unnaturally kind to her loyal assistant April (Issa Rae) whom she must rely on to close a deal that could make or break her business.

Okay, so the premise for this fantasy comedy and its blatantly obvious message aren’t exactly original. Many critics will no doubt give LITTLE quite a whack for being generally formulaic and following such foreseeable footsteps. So instead, I’m going to tell you why LITTLE does indeed go a long way to guaranteeing itself a play date worth joining.

If you’ve seen enough episodes of comedy series Black-ish, then you’ll at least be familiar with who Marsai Martin is. For everyone else (me included), you’ll instantly be equally astonished and charmed by witnessing the big splash this young star makes in this comedy. This minor star’s major impact in LITTLE even extends to executive producer level having pitched this movie, making her the youngest person ever (at the age of 14) to hold the title on a Hollywood production!

Though Marsai Martin is totally capable of carrying the film on her shoulders alone if needed, she’s not required to. Young actor JD McCrary pitches in playing Jordan’s stuttering classmate Isaac, whose vocal chords unveil an organic talent for singing. We’ll be hearing plenty more of him too, having been cast as the voice of Young Simba in the upcoming remake of THE LION KING. Also, the comic timing and delivery of dialogue from Issa Rae is consistently sharp and evokes its fair share of laughter.

A generally easy film to fall under the spell of and endear to.

3 stars

Viewer Discretion
PG (Mild themes, sexual references and coarse language)

Trailer
LITTLE

Moviedoc thanks Universal Pictures for the invite to the screening of this film.

Opens nationally on April 11

Review by Leigh for Moviedoc
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