Greta Gerwig is a talented woman in a field where women are rarely listened to or valued, but she’s earned her place at the front rank of Hollywood creatives. Louisa May Alcott’s venerable property is one which Sony had been keen to develop for a while, and with Gerwig as writer/director, the resulting rich slice of period drama turned out to be something of a triumph for all concerned. For Gerwig, it proved beyond any doubt that her directorial debut, Lady Bird, was no fluke; for Amy Pascal and Sony, it offered a strong return on their faith in a fresh and radical female director, handling a big-name cast and a lush studio production. And for audiences, it was a chance to return to a classic, often filmed text, and find something new and exciting through the eyes of a genuine auteur.
The bildungsroman is an ideal target for a 2019 do-over; today’s youth chronicle their coming of age in lugubrious detail via the socials, so it’s something of a breath of fresh air to find Alcott’s character brought to life with such brief but incisive strokes. Gerwig puts Jo (Saoirse Ronan) and her development centre-stage, opening with the author nervously awaiting the opinion of a publisher of her early work. His understanding, that a story about a woman must end with her either married, or dead, is one that Jo wants to question, but she’s also savvy and prepared to negotiate, on art, on commerce, on all terms. The question is, how did she get so smart?
From here, the narrative fractures, as we travel back seven years to see the formative experiences which have inspired Jo’s work, namely her sisters Margaret (Emma Watson), Amy (Florence Pugh) and Elizabeth (Eliza Scanlen), and also remain in the present to get acquainted with how things work out for the sisters. There is an eccentric aunt (Meryl Streep, giving it some Maggie Smith in the dowager stakes), and a handsome suitor Laurie (the more-than-personable Timothy Chalamet), while the stern but loving hand of mother Marmee (Laura Dern) is there to steady the ship when the girls’ youthful enthusiasm threatens to put things out of kilter. The way the narrative jumps backwards and forwards in time may dissuade those have come just for the classic text and chocolate-box visuals, but it revitalises the narrative in a satisfying way, and makes familiar events more surprising as they play out. As a director, Gerwig plays down the potential for sentiment, while retaining the caustic wit of her script work on Lady Bird and Frances Ha; these Little Women feel like real people, with Ronan’s sparring with Pugh a particular highlight.
Little Women is a delight, a period film that feels relevant, a woman’s picture that should have a universal appeal. It’s easy to cheer Jo as she rises above her difficulties, and Gerwig is always firmly plugged into her heroine’s psyche. The ending, while clever, is unashamedly romantic; Gerwig’s sumptuous film shows a modern audience that feminism and romance can fit together nicely.
How gutted are you about Batgirl being pulled?
That’s not a question I’ve ever considered until 24 hours ago. It seems remarkable that somehow it’s cheaper not to show Batgirl at all than just flog it off, but they seem final about it. I was mildly inconvenienced by that shoot, and now it seems that my sacrifice was for nothing.
Was that parking thing? Did you accidentally curse the production when your spot was taken? Hollywood better take notice.
I don’t think that is something I could have affected. Would Warners write off $70 million just due to shame at my slightly-longer-than-expected walk to work? I’ve not found the world to work like that at all.
I was impressed with this version, as I adored the 1994 Winona Ryder take. When you watch the movie, you can sense director Gerwig in dialogue with writer Alcott, especially in that ending which splits the difference between uplifting romance and grounded feminism. I wish Gerwig had cast more American actors since some of the accents among the sisters are a bit wobbly. But that production design is stunning, very tactile, and lived in. I”m so relieved that you gave this a positive review.
It was very well directed but I thought some of the performances hit and miss.
I’m not crazy about Pugh…
She said the same about you. I tried to put in a good word for you, but . . .
Her Lady Macbeth did my scone in.
Liked her more in that than in Midsommar.
It was a radical take on the Bard.
The other thing that did bother me was how the background to the film was all the men being away being killed, blown to bits or wounded while these tough little things had to endure posh misery. Seemed oddly verging on the wrong kind of entitlement much as though the overriding element was female independence.
Can’t wait to see what her take on Barbie is going to be like!
Good call! Yup, that should be a great compare and contrast, but if anyone can do it, she can!
I am commenting before I read this with great trepidation….this is one of my favorite films ever made so if you trash it, it could do permanent damage to our relationship……..I’ll be back after reading…….
Rest assured, dear reader, I would never think to trash anything with Greta Gerwig involved; I have no criticism of this film! Fortunately Gerwig doesn’t sleep off her cocaine hangover while someone else directs the truck smashes and fist-fights. I did feel we needed a proper film after a few self-indulgent reviews from me…
Whew! I have read your review and agree with every word. This was the last film I saw in the theater before the pandemic hit. There was a moment there where I thought it might be the last film I ever saw in the theater, and if so, a fitting send-off. I could wax poetic about how I wanted to be Jo when I was a kid (as did every tomboy with literary aspirations) and how I loved that the film plays with the ending of the novel – it was never right that Jo married that stuffy old guy, and it was only as an adult that I appreciate how Alcott was winking at us. It’s a film that somehow manages the impossible task of bringing something new to a story that’s been done to death without making it too woke for its times, or ruining the essential message and tone. Well done Gerwig, and well done you! 😉
Is the correct answer! I wanted to tidy up the review, which was written quickly to take advantage of Sony’s expiring embrago, and toned it down a bit. But I’m still in awe of Gerwig, and this is a great adaptation that revitalises a beloved text: what’s not to like?
I know nothing about Little Women, the book passed me bye and so have the movies. It sounds like the Spice Girls in period costumes.
The Winona Ryder one is good as well. Can’t be expected to keep track of Sam Peckinpah AND this….
True, Convoy much more my thing than Gurly flicks.
James Coburn’s second unit car-smashes really enliven Louisa May Alcott’s original novel and song, as covered by CW McCall, and the slo-mo barroom brawl between Merly Streep and Timothy Charmolet is defiantly meaty.
Timothy Charmelpants is neither defiant nor meaty, in anything.
He’s good in Dune. fact!
Shock horror but I was singularly unimpressed with Dune.
Nope. Yellow card for being wrong.
My opinion is perfectly valid. I’d have to do a review to say why and I can’t be arsed. Glad that you enjoyed it though.
Maybe you have been adversely affected by falling down a drain. Even Booky liked it, and he only likes walls and muppets.
Nope. I saw Dune pre-drain day.
The nature of the spice does involve some time travel, ripples in the space-time continuum that may have led you to fall down the drain in the first place. Did you see any sand worms down there?
Nope. I saw some drains. And a shoe. Mine.
Paul Atreides does have visions that do not have an obvious meaning at the time, this sounds very much like one of them.
I’ve read the books. I am not an Atreides.
That’s exactly what one would say! All hail fraggle!
Sigh.
Maybe see this some day. But Ronan is no Winona Ryder or Katharine Hepburn is she?
Boba Fett!
Garsa Fwipp!
Over little Joe’s dead body!
Isn’t it Jo?
sigh, me and my fumble fingers. I give up. I’m officially giving up on any type of accuracy from now on.
They are all good. fact! Apples and oranges.
Paul Atreides saw that he would be in this movie, so he let himself be in it.
FacT!
This is a stealth prequel to Dune, showing how Paul Atreides prepared for life before he got involved with the spice trade.
I always knew Herbert stole his best ideas from the classics! What a chiseler!
Alcott write two sequels, Little Men of Dune and Little Sandworns of Dune.