If you liked the 2004 fantasy comedy flick, '13 going on 30' or Burr Steers '17 Again', you're sure to like Little starring Regina Hall, Issa Rae, and Marsai Martin. Released in April 2019, it has 14-year-old co-star, Marsai Martin, as an executive producer making her the youngest executive producer in Hollywood.
The Plot
Jordan Sanders is a geeky teenage girl who gets bullied at school. After a humiliating experience at a performance in school, she vows she'd grow up, make money and be the bigger bully. A couple of years later, Jordan is the head of a tech company and a mean one at that. She's known to scream orders at everyone and would cause a scene if her coffee mug is too far off the table.
Her mean streak pisses off a little girl with a wand who wishes Jordan was little again. The next morning, Jordan wakes up as her 13-year-old self in her apartment. She's her usual mean self to everyone only to realize she's now little again.
With her assistant's, Apri''s help, she tries to figure out what's happened with her and April makes her promise she'd be nice to her. Child services pay Jordan a visit after a report from a neighbor and she pretends to be the niece of the actual Jordan Sanders while April acts like her guardian.
Jordan resumes back to the high school she went to as a kid based on Child services directives. Once again, she finds herself being bullied and one of the uncool kids. She throws a mini-party for the other uncool kids and convinces them not to perform at the school's show to avoid being humiliated.
Meanwhile, at work, April finds it hard to fill in Jordan's shoes and get everyone to listen to her. When she finally does, she introduces her product pitch to the company's biggest client which she had been trying to sell to Jordan. This gets Jordan furious and she April quits. She also finds out how much her employees hate her.
Now alone with her little problem, Jordan realizes she needs to stop being a mean boss and a mean person in general. She apologizes to April and then goes to the school's show and urges her little friends to perform the dance she initially discouraged them from doing. She gets on the stage and begins dancing and her friends join in.
April finds the little girl with the magic wand to reverse her wish but the wand doesn't seem to do the magic. Jordan wakes up the next day and is back to her normal self.
Jordan losens up and not only promotes April, but makes her an associate to the company.
My Thoughts
The concept of this movie is nothing new. The 1988 fantasy comedy drama, 'Big' happens to be Marsai's inspiration making this movie. A freaky friday kind of movie is one that never gets old and not an overused storyline.
The main characters did a great job potraying their roles and Marsai in particular was excellent acting like a grown woman. Seeing Issa Rae in her typical awkward black girl character was fun to watch.
Jordan dealing with her inner child was the highlight of the movie and goes to show that sometimes, people are asses because of the type of childhood they had.
It wasn't full-on comedy all through, it felt like they were holding back and could have given more. Some scenes were unnecessary like the one at the restaurant where Jordan and April performed a song.
It's a movie teenagers would love (at least 13-year-old me would) so there's no need being overly critical. Overall, it's an almost feel-good movie you might want to recommend to a teenager.
I'd rate Little a solid 5.5 just like its rating on IMDb.
You can watch Little on Netflix.
