The 2019 film adaptation of Little Women, a book originally written by Louisa May Alcott, was directed by Greta Gerwig. The movie tells of the trials and tribulations of the March sisters: Meg, Amy, Beth and Jo. Little Women is one of my favourite books and this movie did it justice.
The Cast
The casting of this film is impeccable! The girls’ actresses manage to encapsulate the chaos of being a teenage girl as well as portray them as mature grief-ridden adults. Saoirse Ronan mastered the ambitious and somewhat careless nature of Jo March, Florence Pugh embodies the jealous younger sister, and Emma Watson well represented the conflicted Meg March. Furthermore, I think Eliza Scanlen deserves more credit for her performance of the quiet creature that is Beth March. Little Women was not short of household names, from the incredible Meryl Streep, as Aunt March, to Laura Dern, as the maternal Marmee. Timothee Chalamet captured the yearning youth of Laurie when he mistakes the platonic love of a friend for something more. I absolutely cannot leave out the talented James Norton (John Brooke) and Louis Garrel (Friedrich Bhaer) who both gave convincing performances as the lovers of Jo and Meg. All in all the casting director deserves a raise.
The Tone Switch
I fear the parallels in this movie may kill me someday. Although the telling of the story is not necessarily chronological; the movie has a clever way of ensuring the viewer knows whether we are in the teenage or adult stage of the movie. At childhood, the tones are brighter and happier, because the hope is yet ignited at this point, the joys of being young are emphasised by the vibrancy. Whereas in adulthood, the tones are greyer and darker, as the characters encounter the grief of losing someone so dear as a sister. Many of the early scenes are mirrored in the later ones, and yet both have such different atmospheres. An example of this is Jo sleeping beside Beth during illness and waking to find her gone, the primary scene closes with Beth finally being in the kitchen, recovering, but the second ends with Jo discovering her broken mother in the very same kitchen. The stark contrast of the energy between the scenes only serves to make it more heart-wrenching.
The Writing
Greta Gerwig wrote some truly moving pieces of speech for Little Women and they helped make the movie the masterpiece that it is. After Beth’s death Jo’s monologue to Marmee about the feeling of what it is to be a woman brings tears to my eyes, it was delivered to perfection by Saoirse Ronan, and it is a speech spoken in true grief. “I am so sick of people saying that love is just all a woman is fit for. I’m so sick of it! But — I am so lonely.” Similarly, Amy’s proto-feminist speech to Laurie about what it is to be a woman of her time, spoken with such passion, the viewers can finally understand Amy’s conflict about getting married to Fred Vaughn. “So don’t sit there and tell me that marriage isn’t an economic proposition because it is. It may not be for you, but it most certainly is for me” Despite her role in the film being short-lived, Beth’s speech encapsulates what it is to be dying, Eliza Scanlen’s delivery of these lines demonstrates Beth’s acceptance of her fate and understanding that, unlike the other sisters, she will not leave her childhood home. “It’s like the tide going out, it goes out slowly but it can’t be stopped” It wouldn’t be right for me to write this and not talk about the hill scene between Laurie and Jo. This scene acts as the true turning point for the film and epitomises “childhood being over”, the emotionally charged monologues that make up this scene highlight the raw love Laurie had for Jo, and the overlapping of words adds to the solemnity of Laurie leaving Jo because he can no longer face the rejection. “I’ve loved you ever since I’ve known you, Jo, I couldn’t help it” “It would be a disaster”
This film means so much to me for so many reasons, it’s an almost perfect adaptation of my favourite book, and the focus on girlhood emphasises its importance. From the set to the costume design, everything is how I imagined it when I was reading it!
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