TV & Film

I recently watched the 2019 film version of Little Women and subsequently felt the overwhelming urge to read the book. Whilst I had vague memories of my mother reading it to me as a child, I didn’t remember much of the story and to be quite honest, I thought that the whole thing was rather boring and quite dull. I mean, the title isn’t particularly exciting, in fact it sounds quite demure if anything. But after watching Greta Gerwig’s 2019 film adaptation my mind has been changed and I have absolutely fallen in love with Little Women, both Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, and Greta Gerwig’s.

This movie felt so modern, yet respectful of the time period, remaining accurate and believable. I think that it was able to feel so relevant and modern because it focuses on timeless themes. It is a story about women and money, love and ambition and the pursuit of the arts. It is just so fantastic and inspiring. I’m now going to dive into the specifics of what I loved about the book and movie (in probably quite an all over the place way), so spoilers (of a story written 150 years ago) ahead!

One thing that I loved about Gerwig’s adaptation is that she focuses on Jo’s writing, Jo’s ambition and her dreams. In fact, this is really at the core of the movie. We follow Jo as she pursues her journey to become a writer. The movie opens and closes with Jo, her writing and her book. This felt so important and I loved seeing the story being set up in this way. In the book, for 85% of it, Jo is focused on her writing and then she suddenly stops writing and loses her ambition to become an author in the last 15%. As I discovered this while reading the book, I felt heartbroken and frustrated. For the whole book Jo had been banging on about how she would be an author and how she would never get married and then she suddenly abandons her convictions and stops writing, gets married and opens a school for boys? No thank you! I was devastated that Jo never wrote a book like she had always dreamed. I did some research, unable to comprehend why Louisa had done this and found out that this was not actually what she had wanted for Jo:

“Publishers won’t let authors finish up as they like but insist on having people married off in a wholesale manner which much afflicts me. ‘Jo’ should have remained a literary spinster…” – Louisa May Alcott

This set my heart at rest and if anything made the 2019 movie that much more special. Gerwig tells the story of Jo in a way that Alcott would have wanted. In the opening scene when Jo is speaking to a publisher, he says to her “Make it short and spicy. And if the main character’s a girl, make sure she’s married by the end. Or dead, either way.” Gerwig addresses Alcott’s struggle with Jo head on and in doing so, told a story closer to that of Louisa May Alcott’s, who never did get married and remained a literary spinster!

Saoirse Ronan is absolutely excellent as Jo. She is fierce yet vulnerable, strong and caring. Such talent, and an absolute highlight. I could not get enough of her. I think my favourite scene from the entire movie has to be when Jo is in the attic with Marmee, and Jo says this:

“Women have minds and souls as well as hearts, ambition and talent as well as beauty and I’m sick of being told that love is all a woman is fit for. But... I am so lonely.” – Jo March

This had me in tears. I was an utter mess. I have thought about this line and this scene so much and continue to think about it. It absolutely stands today. It acknowledges that it is wonderful to be ambitious and driven, but it is also ok to feel lonely. It is ok to want a significant other while wanting a career. It is ok to want and to have both. You are neither less or more of a woman or less or more strong.

In the movie, I actually really liked Amy (shocker I know). Whist Florence Pugh certainly did not look like a twelve-year-old girl, she did play an excellent Amy, especially in the second part when Amy is in Europe. Something that I loved in the movie that I did not feel was present in the book was Amy’s moment where she tells Laurie that she doesn’t just want to be his second choice, after Jo. In the book, Amy doesn’t really have a clear moment where she is conflicted by Laurie falling in love with her so soon after Jo rejected him. I felt like Gerwig gave Amy more substance and built on the Amy in the book. I also like Amy because she speaks her mind and tells it like it is. She has this wisdom that really shines through towards the end "The world is hard on ambitious girls” She was just excellent!

The casting of this movie was just impeccable, and I find it hard to flaw. There was no better woman than Laura Dern to play Marmee, she had this wonderful warmth and strength to her that I adored. I loved seeing Emma Watson in a role like Meg, whilst I have never been able to personally connect with Meg, I felt like Emma did a wonderful job at bringing depth to who Meg is. I thought that Eliza Scanlan was a very lovely Beth, very gentle and warm, I became very attached to Beth and was left sobbing towards the end. Timothee Chalamet was excellent as Laurie. I think he was fun, sensitive, open and vulnerable, all of the qualities that Laurie needed to have. However, I desperately wanted Laurie and Jo to be together which was not the case when I read the book. Maybe it’s just something about Saoirse Ronan and Timothee Chalamet on screen together, I was again, left sobbing.

This story has touched me and will stay with me for a very long time. I keep finding myself thinking about Little Women, the story and the movie. It is so relevant and insightful and inspiring. I am in awe of Greta Gerwig’s genius, the brilliance of the story and the fact that I didn’t read Little Women earlier! There are so many more things I could say. But I think that I may finish this review with a few quotes from the book that I loved.

“I like good strong words that mean something.” – Jo

“I want to do something splendid… something heroic or wonderful, that won’t be forgotten after I’m dead. I don’t know what, but I’m on the watch for it, and mean to astonish you all someday.” – Jo

“For public opinion is a giant which has frightened stouter-hearted Jacks on bigger beanstalks than hers.”

“For to be independent and earn the praise of those she loved, were the dearest wishes of her heart, and this seemed to be the first step towards that happy end.”