'Little Women' is boldly told, but at a cost — movie review

Greta Gerwig gives her take on Louisa May Alcott's classic novel Little Women with a narrative twist and an all-star cast

Quick review: While Gerwig's narrative risks don't always payoff, Little Women thrives on a timeless story, great performances, and a strong beating heart.

There have been seven film adaptations of Louisa May Alcott's classic novel Little Women with each one seemingly further modernizing the last take (Be Kind Rewind does a terrific breakdown of the four most notable versions). Of the modern auteurs working today, Greta Gerwig seemed like the perfect person to write and direct our generation's version. And it's clear in the film that she has so much admiration and respect for the novel. Like Rian Johnson's take on Star Wars, that respect manifests itself as a loving subversion of the source material — a subversion that only someone with a deeper understanding of it could pull off successfully. And Gerwig almost nails it.

Retelling an old classic

So much of the brilliance of Gerwig's Lady Bird comes from the story's tightly structured screenplay. In that movie, she plays with time. Opting to tell the story through short vignettes and montages rather than linger on any scene for too long. It's a story choice that supports the central thesis of the film — that Lady Bird thinks she's the main character of her own story, forgetting that she's a supporting character in others'. 

She carries over a similar structure to Little Women. Each scene from the present is cut in with a scene from the past — bringing the two halves of the novel together. Gerwig again doesn't linger on any scene or storyline for too long — a detriment to the first half, which I'll talk about later. 

The movie follows Jo March (Saoirse Ronan following up her performance in Gerwig's Lady Bird), a headstrong and fiercely independent writer making her way in the big city. Her younger sister Amy (a delightful Florence Pugh) is in Paris accompanied by her Aunt March (Meryl Streep) where she is studying painting. Meg, the oldest of the March sisters, is married with kids and still living in their Massachusetts hometown near their mother Marmie (Laura Dern). The youngest, Beth, has recently fallen ill, which brings Jo home and reckon with her past.

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Taking an emotional risk

By switching between past and present, Little Women almost becomes a memory play where we see the cause and effect of the events and decisions in the women's lives simultaneously play out. In the past, we watch Jo flirt and fall in love with Laurie (Timothée Chalamet), the grandson of their wealthy neighbor (Chris Cooper). In the present scenes, we see that she doesn't end up with Laurie and that he is in Europe where he runs into Amy. It's a small change that has a large impact.

And while the structure itself helps set a melancholic tone and creates a more immediate emotional payoff, it also prevents us from getting to know the characters and see their relationships grow and change. It felt as if the emotional stakes were taken away from us. Or, at least, someone like me. Maybe if I'd been a fan of the book or previous adaptations — I didn't watch the 1994 version before this one — I'd already have the emotional investment in the characters. Instead, I felt like I had to fill in the blanks and imagine what led each character to each specific moment.

Eventually, the rhythm of the movie made a bit more sense and after spending much of the first hour piecing together who the characters are and their relationships with each other, the second half felt so much easier and I started to see the fruits of Gerwig's risk. Though, they came at a cost.

It's a woman's, woman's, woman's world

Gerwig is a perfect match for the material because, like Alcott, she subtly pushes against the boxes that society makes for women. The same goes for Ronan, who plays Jo with the same defiance that made her Lady Bird performance so terrific. However, pushing against that defiance is matters of the heart — towards her family and Laurie. It's truly a millennial's tale. How do you balance your ambition with the things that you want but can't take along with you for the ride? 

On the other end of things, Watson's Meg is excited to fall into society's ideal for womanhood. Somewhere in the middle, Pugh's Amy wants both, driven partly from middle child syndrome. When the movie focuses on this quandary, it reaches its fullest potential. Though the relationship between the March sisters — the so-called little women — is the true heart.

March-ing to the beat of its own drum

Though the structure is the main reason I didn't completely fall for Little Women, it was refreshing that it wasn't a straight adaptation of the material. We need more directors and screenwriters to take the risk with existing IP. If we're going to continue to get remake after reboot after remake, then at the very least we can have something slightly different. Something that marches to the beat of its own drum. 

Little Women might be flawed, but it's a movie with a timeless story that will embrace you. In the days since watching it, the story itself has grown on me and the characters have endeared themselves to me. It's no wonder Hollywood is so attracted to telling it over and over again. I'm glad Gerwig got her shot. She cements herself as one of the most exciting storytellers working today.