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| Saoirse Ronan and Timothée Chalamet in Little Women. Image courtesy Columbia Pictures. |
Little Women is simply
extraordinary. It's riveting and enchanting, sweet and bittersweet,
buoyed by an incredible level of brilliance in nearly every facet.
The film is far too good to be described as simple comfort film –
it's much too intricate for that – yet it is comforting to watch a
film as exquisite and charming as this.
Based on the eponymous novel by Louisa
May Alcott, Little Women centers on the March sisters over the
course of seven years in the 1860s. Jo (Saoirse Ronan) is an aspiring
writer living in a tiny apartment in New York City. Oldest sister Meg
(Emma Watson) is a married mother of two with dreams of wealth and
comfort. Amy (Florence Pugh) lives with Aunt March (Meryl Streep) in
Paris and wants to marry into wealth to support her family.
Beth (Eliza Scanlen) is at home in Concord, Massachusetts with
matriarch Marmee (Laura Dern), living a quiet life while fighting
against an unspecified condition. The March sisters find a friend in
their whimsical neighbor Laurie (Timothée
Chalamet) and a patron in Laurie's grandfather (Chris Cooper) as they
grow up through times hard and good.
Little
Women is a
fundamentally excellent film; everything in this film works, and it
works to a brilliant degree. There are no glaring flaws with the
writing, directing, acting, cinematography, editing, or soundtrack.
Every emotional beat is struck with the perfect amount of force to
wring out the desired effect. Writer/director Greta Gerwig has
created a film that is legitimately outstanding, building upon the
existing material to create a lovely, relatable story of family and
growing up.
The main drama in Little Women is
rooted in the difficulties of both, shown through quotidian anecdotes from the March sisters' childhoods. A day at the
beach is nearly as memorable as Amy burning Jo's novel or Meg's
wedding to the kind John Brooke (James Norton), with each moment
adding more layers to the March family dynamic. All of these small
moments in the March women's lives build up to a remarkable portrait
of sisters navigating into the confusing world of adulthood,
reconsidering their youthful ambitions. The March sisters all have
dreams of becoming an artist – whether it be a writer, musician,
actor, or painter – that either fall apart or come close to doing
so. The film isn't about settling for something short of your dreams;
rather, the characters look within themselves to find what matters to
them and who they want to be. Amy, Jo, and Meg all go through this
process of self reflection and come out of it knowing their course as
they establish themselves as adults.
There's nothing overly complex about
the film's storytelling, but Gerwig does something quite clever by
jumping between the past and the film's present without clear
demarcations. Little Women might start a story in Paris and
quickly jump back to Concord to link that specific moment with a
memory. Aside from linking the past and present directly, this adds a
little verisimilitude to the storytelling. Memories can pop out of
nowhere with little provocation, so the film doing the same feels
true to life and serves as a subtle method of drawing a closer
connection with the March sisters. The audience is living life
through the eyes of the family, adding to the weight of the hard
times and the joy of the good times. If done poorly, this could
alienate the audience by confusing them, but Gerwig handles this
beautifully. She shows a talent for guiding multiple narratives and
has faith in her storytelling to keep the audience invested despite
the frequent time skips.
What's most endearing about Little
Women is the decency coursing through this film. There is so much
kindness and caring shown by the main characters its impossible to
avoid investment in the lives of the March family. Every character
has a few flaws to keep them human, yet the flaws never overshadow
how much everyone cares for one another. Gerwig doesn't force her
characters to do the right things at all times, yet they care enough
to feel contrition for their actions and use that to grow into more
mature, kinder people. Jo and Amy have the most turbulent
relationship of the four sisters, but the film ends with them
respecting each other for their wisdom and talents, along with
forgiveness for transgressions fueled by immaturity. Adulthood can
have that affect on families – the squabbles of the past become
less and less important as siblings grow up and find perspective –
and Little Women shows how captivating growing up can be.
Review:
Four and a half out of Five Stars
Click
here
to see the trailer.
Rating:
PG
Run
time: 134 minutes
Genre:
Drama
tl;dr
What
Worked: Writing,
Directing, Acting, Storytelling
What
Fell Short: A
bit of drag in the third act
What
To Watch As Well:
Atonement,
Frances Ha
