Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 5/10

Cast: Regina Hall, Issa Rae, Marsai Martin, Justin Hartley, Tracee Ellis Ross, Tone Bell, Mikey Day, JD McCrary, Tucker Meek, Thalia Tran, Marley Taylor, Eva Carlton, Luke James, Rachel Drench, Christopher A. Martin, Noree Victoria, Kendra L. Franklin, Marc Hawes, Jade Fernandez, Chelsea Hayes, Caleb Emery.

Whilst an idea can be liberating, sometimes it can become a rod for the back that strains and holds you in its thrall simply because you don’t want to be seen to admit that it doesn’t work the way you may have imagined. The notion of carrying through Hell when you find yourself there may be one for the history books, but in cinema perhaps it should just be a reminder of being able to let go; and in terms of producing the mild and vaguely familiar over and over again, it just comes across as saying something for the hell of being heard.

The body swap genre knows no boundaries that cannot be explored, and even in the reversal of age it finds a home in which to remind the cinema goer to be more understanding of those around you, the message that you were a kid once, that you should empathise with the new generation coming through and being just as terrified as you were at the same age. The message is laudable, it adds a base for laughter, but it can also come across as schmaltzy, revelling in its own sentimental pursuit, and like Big before it, Little adopts the same tone of asking an audience to empathise with the unlikeable when all they really should be doing is asking why such a film can be made and not giving wonderful actors such as Regina Hall and Marsai Martin deeper, fulfilling roles.

Little has its moments; it takes an awfully brave film to be completely devoid of intrigue and meaning, but when it looks back upon itself it will surely attest to committing the most heinous of crimes, that of being average, nothing to truly get under the skin, nothing to truly find redeeming.

If there is a shining star to be found, then it is the relationship between Issa Rae, who plays Jordan Sanders assistant April Williams, and Marsai Martin who arguably glows in the role of Jordan as she is reversed in age to thirteen once more. The dynamic between the two actors raising the film from what could have been a total disaster.

Little is not unimportant, but it could have been so much more, it seemed to relish the uncomfortable sexualisation of the youngest members of the cast, and it arguably found ways in which to leave the viewer squirming in their seat as certain reveals are explored; neither insufficient but also found wanting, Little is a film that is just ever so slight.

Ian D. Hall