Film Review: Little Women

Sexuality/Nudity No Objection
Violence No Objection
Vulgarity No Objection
Anti-Catholic Philosophy No Objection


Last year I saw the critically lauded Greta Gerwig film Lady Bird.  You can read the full review here, but in a nutshell I detested it.  So when I heard that Gerwig was writing and directing an adaptation of Little Women, I was incredibly skeptical.  I was expecting it to be a post-modern deconstruction of the classic book filled with modern diatribes and lectures about how backwards the society of the day was.

I could not have been more wrong.

Gerwig has achieved something truly great with this movie. 

The story centers around the four March sisters in late 1860's New England.  There is Jo (Saoirse Ronan), the head-strong, independent writer.  Then there is Meg (Emma Watson), the conscientious actress and hopeless romantic.  Amy (Florence Pugh) is the immature, hyper-feminine daughter who grows into a woman of society.  Finally there is Beth (Eliza Scanlen), the reserved, musical, and tender-hearted daughter in the group.  They all live under the care of their mother Marmee (Laura Dern) while their father is helping the Union Army in the Civil War.  The girls become friends with the wealthy neighbor boy Laurie (Timothee Chalamet), who grows increasingly fond of Jo over the years. 

One of the most innovative and effective things that Gerwig does is jump back and forth in the narrative from adulthood to childhood.  Unlike most adaptation which presents the story in chronological order, Gerwig introduces us to the characters as adults.  This is a narrative risk, since there is a danger that you could lose all dramatic tension of their childhood if we know where they end up.  SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NOT READ THE NOVEL.  We are told at the beginning that Laurie professed his love for Joe sometime in the past and was rejected.  We know from the beginning who Meg will marry and how her life has turned out.  But instead of taking the wind out of the narrative's sails, it makes the story much more interesting.  The early years are told with a literal and visual warmth and glow that contrasts so nicely with the strain of adult responsibility.  Gerwig has expertly divided up past and present so that one informs the other for the character's arcs.  This is especially the case for the romance between Amy and Laurie.  Amy is supposed only be a little girl when she first meets Laurie and they fall in love towards the end of the story after she has grown.  But here, Gerwig makes Amy only slightly younger than Jo and the first time we see Amy and Laurie in the story, they are both adults who have a clear connection.  It makes the love triangle much more interesting and engaging.

END SPOILERS

I have to say that this movie warmed my heart.  It is not cynical or post-modern.  There is a line where Marmee says she is ashamed of her country, but it is in the context of the existence of slavery.  Both Jo and Amy give speeches about the limited opportunities for women, but they do not come off as lectures.  They are born out of the story and the characters in a way that feels natural to the time and not some modern critique of it.  Jo says that her value is more than just to be an object of love, but this is not a rejection of romance as some kind of protest against society.  She may be more than someone who needs love, but she is not less than that.  Each of the characters feels completely fleshed out and not stereotypes.  Each of the sisters has a distinctive voice that creates a real sense of anger and affection like you would find in any family. 

The greatest thing about what this movie did for me is that in inspires me to be more generous.  The girls just sit down to eat a hearty Christmas breakfast when Marmee tells them about a family in need that has nothing and asks the girls to give up their morning feast.  You can clearly see the disappointment in them, but they comply and go off to give away their food not with sullen complaints, but with the joy of a family outing.  Seeing the squalor of the other family makes concrete for them the need for their gift and fills them with purpose.  Marmee is constantly seeking to do more, anonymously giving her own scarf to a poor man who needs it.  Even their mostly absent father is away so that he can do his part to help his fellow man.  Marmee tries so hard to pass on this virtue to her children and see it on screen without preachiness or too much sentiment makes me want to be a more generous person.  And all of this is done with the characters' Christian faith not being marginalized.

You can see the effect that this has on the girls.  Even Jo's ambitions as a writer are not born out of selfish need for self-actualization.  She has gone to New York to become a writer because it is greatest talent and her best way to make money for her family.  She struggles with selling stories she does not like and writing stories that she does, but always with the needs of her family in mind.  This is also true of Amy who is the only one of her sisters who has a chance to marry into wealth.  This is not portrayed as mercenary but always with the eye of her responsibility to take care of the rest of the family.  As tense as things become, the love that covers all wounds is never forgotten.  Family always forgives because we are family.  As Jo says, "Life is too short to be angry with one's sister."

A short note about the most absent father.  I was worried that this film could easily degenerate into a statement about how women don't need husbands and fathers in their lives.  But Gerwig never lets us forget the hole that is left by their father's absence and the affections the family has for him never wanes.  As capable and strong as the Mach women are, his not being there is another hardship that they must bear and they never stop hoping for his return.

The performances are outstanding.  Ronan's Jo is a fireball of life.  She never gets too showy with her portrayal, making sure Jo is a woman of her day, though slightly ahead of it.  She plays the most wonderful contradictions of the heart all at the same time.  She is strong enough to negotiate a profitable book deal, but vulnerable enough to cry over the selling of her hair.  Watson does an incredibly reserved turn as Meg.  There is a scene where she complains to her husband about how ashamed she feels that they cannot afford the finer things in life.  In the hands of a lesser actress, Meg would sound cloying and materialistic.  Instead, we feel her pain even as she shatters the masculine heart of her husband.  Scanlen does a fine job as Beth, having the difficult job of portraying simple kindness and virtue in an interesting way. 

But the real standout is Pugh.  Her performance as Amy is worth of an Oscar.  The transformation she goes through from childhood to womanhood is so stark, but feels so natural.  She captures the unfiltered immaturity of youth perfectly with her face, her voice, and her body language.  Watching her run awkwardly after Jo and Laurie repeating how Jo promised that she could go ice skating with them is a scene that is stuck in my head because Pugh completely embodied the complete lack of self-awareness of a child.  And then this is contrasted with the poised and sophisticated woman that she turns into where every word, gesture, and tone of voice is measured and controlled.  All the while she endears you to Amy even at her worst.

I have not been one to understand the hype around Chalamet, but this movie shows off all of his charisma.  I think every girl who sees this movie will fall a little in love with him for his portrayal, which shows his passion, pain, devotion, and wildness.  Dern is great as Marmee.  Chris Cooper and Meryl Streep also have supporting roles that fit in perfectly with this film.

Again, Gerwig knows how to direct.  She makes life in the 1860's, even as difficult as it was, look nostalgic and beautiful.  Gerwig makes Jo's process of writing fascinating and draws us in so that even the shots of the book-binding are fascinating to watch.  That is because instead of making a "modern" movie, she engaged in classic film-making, showing us how not so much how this story speaks to our age, but how it speaks to all ages.

This movie casts a spell on you and doesn't let go.  She took Louisa May Alcott's novel, found it's heart, and gave it to us on the screen.  There is a reason that this story keeps getting retold and refilmed.  This is a universal story.  It is our story.  It is the story about how we have to grow up and how the lessons of childhood should mold us into adults who follow our dreams but never turn our backs on the family that God has given us.   This movie is a modern classic that I believe will be the definitive film version of Little Women for years to come.

I left the theater with my heart warmed and a desire to be a better person.

Can you ask for anything more?