Little Women

Camaraderie in Little Women

Greta Gerwig's Little Women tries to update the old chestnut by rejiggering the narrative in postmodern fashion. This helps accentuate the feminism and class consciousness of the novel. It also serves to position the film as a meta commentary on Alcott and her fiction. However. Gerwig's choices somewhat dissipate the film's emotional impact.

The camaraderie, and feuding, between the sisters is lovingly established in Alcott's novel and serves to cement the reader's affection towards her characters. Gerwig shows these moments as flashbacks in a narrative where the sisters are already separated: Jo in New York, Amy in Europe with Laurie and Aunt March, Meg settled into domesticity with her husband and Beth, as always, back at home at death's door. The warm glow of the March's hearth dims when viewed in retrospect.

Gerwig's choices do yield some fruit. The death of Beth is contrasted with an earlier recovery and that helps to magnify the loss. However, the impact of Amy's fall into the frozen pond is negated because we already know she survives and will skedaddle off to Europe. For those not familiar with the original text, the only clue to the time frame of an individual scene is the length of Saoirse Ronan's hair. 

As usual, I carp too much. This Little Women is enjoyable, if not as impressive a film as Lady Bird. Gerwig does show she can work on a bigger scale. The film has many lovely moments. A sojourn at the seashore has the lighting and ambience of a Winslow Homer. The cast is uniformly fine. Even Timothee Chalamet, a callow and limited performer, is a snug fit as the shallow Laurie. The performances of Florence Pugh as Amy and Meryl Streep as Aunt March are the best done for these roles, thus far. The character of Jo has an overweening single-mindedness that borders on arrogance: a role tailor made for Katherine Hepburn. Ms. Ronan is a little too charming and likable for the role, but is not the disaster June Allyson was. I prefer the George Cukor and Gillian Armstrong versions of Little Women, but this will do fine until the next one comes along.