Little Women (2019, PG)

First of all, at some point later, I’m going to have to do a comparison post between the 1994 adaptation of Little Women and this movie. The former is one of my favorite movies of all time and has been for decades, which obviously makes it harder for the new version to stand on its own in my regard. But honestly? I love both, mostly for different reasons. For now, though, I’ll try and limit the comparisons so I can stick to a straight-up review (a few light spoilers.)

The four March sisters live in Concord with their mother while their father is away in the Civil War. Wistful, romantic Meg, who looks at the finery richer girls own and laments the family’s limited means; tomboy-ish, imaginative Jo, who chafes at social conventions and dreams of taking the world by storm with her writing; shy, delicate Beth, who possesses a big heart which gives of itself exhaustively; and fanciful, ambitious Amy, who has great plans for her future that involve marrying extremely well and becoming a great artist. Amidst squabbles and sorrows, love and loss, the sisters look out for one another as they grow into young women.

Going into the film, I’d heard about its non-linear structure, moving back and forth in time between the vibrant, youthful first half of the book and the quieter, more adult second half. It struck me as a pretty good strategy, since the first half of the book contains more of its standout sequences, and playing with the timeline seemed like a good way to balance out the scenes. But to quote Sunday in the Park with George, “everything depends on execution,” and the technique could easily make or break the adaptation. I’ll admit that, at the very first, the jumps felt a little jarring to me, and I wondered from time to time whether someone who hadn’t read the book could keep track of the story. Quickly, though, I got into the rhythm of it and I find it an overall success. From a technical standpoint, the film incorporates plenty of indicators (a different color palette, differences in costumes/hairstyles) to show where we are in time, and narratively, I think it’s definitely an asset to the film. It creates nice thematic kinship between numerous moments in the past and present of the Marches’ lives, it keeps the action more dynamic, and it helps certain plot developments in the second half come off more convincingly.

This is just a really lushly-made film. The care that went into the design and the arrangement of the story is evident, it’s brimming with passion (both the characters’ own passion in their lives and the production team’s passion for the source material,) and it infuses an old story with a modern flair that, rather than feeling anachronistic, enhances what it’s trying to say and gives the film a greater feeling of immediacy and resonance. I really like different moments added into the script in which different characters address the gender inequality of their world more overtly than the book does. Writer/director Greta Gerwig (of Lady Bird fame) received a well-earned Adapted Screenplay nomination, but her direction was sadly overlooked.

The acting is strong across the board. More nominations here, a Leading Actress nod for Saoirse Ronan, who brings a blazing ferocity to her portrayal of Jo, and a Supporting Actress nomination for Florence Pugh, who’s honestly revelatory in her role as Amy (this film makes me “get” Amy in a way that neither the book nor the 1994 film really did.) Emma Watson does nice work as Meg and Eliza Scanlen, who I’m not familiar with, gives a very affecting performance as Beth. I’m slightly less sold on Laura Dern’s Marmee and Timothée Chalamet’s Laurie – while both capture the essence of their characters well, Dern feels just a bit too modern, and Chalamet’s youthful face makes him seem like the Marches’ kid brother instead of a romantic prospect for any of them. Meryl Streep delivers as usual as Aunt March, and Chris Cooper knocks it out of the park as Mr. Laurence.

Like Marriage Story, the film picked up six Oscar nominations in total. It’s another Best Picture nominee, and besides the screenplay and acting nods, it’s also up for Costume Design and Original Score.

Warnings

Brief violence/peril, a little drinking/smoking, and thematic elements.