“Little Women” (2019) - Film Review
Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s timeless novel, Little Women, feels like coming home. It’s the sort of movie that surrounds the audience with feelings of warmth and comfort. This feeling comes from the coziness of the cabin the March family resides in, the love that exudes from the performances, and the treatment of the source material, which was clearly a formative book for Gerwig. She approaches this retelling with a few small updates and a great reverence for the original.
Little Women is the story of the March sisters: Meg (Emma Watson), Josephine “Jo” (Saoirse Ronan), Amy (Florence Pugh), and Beth (Eliza Scanlen), who are growing up after the end of the Civil War. The sisters are extremely tight-knit, but they also have their own individual areas of interest. Meg wants to be a mother, Jo a writer, Amy a painter, and Beth a pianist. The story of Little Woman is written by Jo for Beth.
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The film attempts to determine who and what is worthy of merit. Jo’s fictionalized writing about herself and her sisters is at first rejected by a publisher because he believes it’s not what will sell copies and make money. The publisher has no interest in the stories until his daughters read the manuscript and demand to know how it ends. Their interest proves to him that there is value in stories of family bonds and relationships, and that committing those types of feelings to paper is a way of celebrating relationships that were often taken for granted.
On the flipside, the audience sees Amy go to Paris to master a painting technique that is already going out of style. Is there value in perfecting a skill that is no longer at the forefront of the art world? Amy has to find out. Perhaps the biggest proponent of measuring worth by your own standards instead of by society’s is the quiet sister, Beth. She adores playing the piano for the joy it brings to herself and others. Worth, according to Beth, is what matters to the individual. She believes that if you put your own time and effort into something you love, you will gain personal fulfillment. If the rest of the world takes notice, that’s an added bonus.
There is a richness in Little Women that seeps into every inch of every frame. The maternal love of Marmee (Laura Dern) and the honest bickering of the sisters makes the audience feel like they have joined the March family. Gerwig has an incredible ability to create movies that feel lived-in and welcoming. It’s as if the actors and sets existed long before the cameras started rolling and will continue to exist long after they have stopped.
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