review: little women (2019)

[sideways]

"Women have minds and souls as well as just hearts, and they've got ambition and talent as well as just beauty. And I'm sick of people saying love is all a woman is good for. I'm so sick of it!! But I'm... I'm so lonely."

A confession: I've never read Little Women, and this is the first adaptation I've seen of the classic novel, though I've had a general idea of the story thanks to cultural osmosis and that one Friends episode. This is both a sheepish indictment of my reluctance to read slice-of-life stories and no guarantee that this film would speak to the die-hard fans of the literary version.

I enjoyed it a great deal, however. The cast did a stunning job, to my eyes, and though Saorise Ronan as Jo March was an undeniable stage stealer there was lots to love about each of them. The narrative also walked a good middle ground between being coherent and pleasing to newcomers while offering a new pathway through a familiar garden to the old guard. A movie can never capture all the depth of a novel, but it did seem to capture its heart. The audience I sat in laughed, and gasped, and of course wept - someone over to my upper right had a proper bawl, in fact. I hope it was the catharsis they needed.

The film refrained from being preachy, but it didn't shy from the obvious themes. Character-heavy storytelling at its best: there are many people, perspectives, and opinions, and some points are well made, and some personal realities may hit home. Certainly some hit me. As a woman; and as a woman who sometimes writes; and as a woman who is uncertain she loves... well. I am no Jo, but I am not any of them in whole, and that's the fun of it; to sometimes see myself reflected, and other times marvel at how different humans can be.

I liked the approach they took to the ending. It worked for me.

On the whole, warmly recommended and a good use of an afternoon.

Comments

[kaffy_r]

I read and reread all of Alcott's "March" stories - Little Women, Little Men, and Jo's Boys and How They Turned Out - when I was young, and there are scenes burned into my head and heart. Reading them as an adult can sometimes be a cringeworthy experience, but there's still spirit and love in the writing.

When I went to see the movie, I felt it captured what was best about the first book, and the best in all the characters. In fact, it managed to make Amy, who was probably the sister I liked the least, almost my favorite. Her character in the movie encapsulated a lot of frustration and anger I think Alcott probably felt, possibly even more than Jo.

[sideways]

I'm glad to hear my impression that it represented the books well wasn't off c: Did you like the ending? I've seen some mixed thinking on it, which I suppose is fair given people have been arguing about the best ending for Jo for a very long time.

I also found myself really liking Amy! They selected great scenes to show her at both worst and best, and the middling place between them was a compellingly passionate individual.

[kaffy_r]

I enjoyed the ending; Jo as an all-but-declared Alcott was a creative way to maintain what I think was the underlying spirit of the book, while staying true to the book's plot.

[sideways]

It did feel charmingly like getting to have the cake and eat the meta commentary too, hehe.

[kaffy_r]

And there are some times when that's exactly what's needed.

[sideways]

It did get me good. I think that's the first time I've seen a text acknowledge that someone can genuinely not desire to be married, but also still feel the deep loneliness and... longing for what it represents. "I want to be loved." Even better insofar as it made it clear there were still ways to get satisfaction and community from life outside of that one particular, societally-embedded contract.

It was a good movie!! I felt seen.

[anneapocalypse]

This isn't a film that had really caught my attention until reading this, and though I only ever read half of Little Women I did enjoy what I read, so I might have to give this a watch now! Thanks for sharing your thoughts on it!

[sideways]

You're welcome! After years of superhero and action flicks, it was a nice reminder to myself that it's worth stepping outside the genre comfort zone and soaking up some stories driven by the characters (vs characters being inexorably driven by the demands of the plot).